Alleged rapist 'made "disgusting" comments after attack'

Tuesday 09 April 2019

A man accused of rape told his alleged victim that while girls always told men to ‘stop’, there was no need to do so until they began to scream, the Royal Court has heard.

Miss X, giving evidence on the first day of the trial of Mr Brett Kean for rape and sexual assault yesterday, broke down briefly in the witness box when she was asked what her attacker had said to her following the alleged sexual assault which took place more than two-and-a-half years ago.

Asked by the prosecuting counsel, Advocate David Steenson, how she felt about the comments, she replied: "I felt it was absolutely disgusting."

Mr Kean denies rape and two counts of indecent assault at the Sandranne Hotel in St. Helier on 16 July 2016.

Pictured: Mr Kean is on trial in the Royal Court.

Following the opening of the prosecution case, Miss X was called as the first witness and gave evidence throughout the first afternoon of the trial screened off from the dock so that she could not see the defendant.

She described how, having consented to sex with Mr Kean after meeting him in the bar of the Sandranne Hotel, she became increasingly concerned by a string of text and phone calls and by efforts he made in person to continue a relationship with her.

She described how, the morning after they had had consensual sex, he accompanied her to a meeting in St. Helier which in hindsight seemed odd, she said. Later, she said he tried repeatedly to phone her and sent a string of text messages, which, she told the jury, made her feel uncomfortable.

Questioned by Advocate Steenson over why she had decided to record three conversations she had with Mr Kean, she replied that she wanted to keep a record of their interactions.

"The point of it was because I was more and more concerned about the way he was presenting as becoming more and more full-on. It crossed my mind that if it carried on, I might need to go to the Police," she said.

Pictured: The Deputy Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq, is presiding.

In the days leading up to the alleged assault, the jury was told that Mr Kean sent a friend to Miss X's bedroom to try to persuade her to join them for drinks. Later, he banged on the door of her bedroom himself to try to persuade her to let him into the room.

She told the jury that she became "freaked out" when she was later approached in Library Place by a man she had not met before who asked her about her relationship with the defendant. As a result, she tried to persuade him to delete her mobile number from his phone to prevent him contacting her further.

It was in order to do this, she said, that she agreed to meet Mr Keen outside the hotel early in the morning on 16 July 2016. 

However, she told the jury that, after a conversation lasting five or 10 minutes, he said that he would only do so if she agreed to allow him to continue their conversation out of the cold, in her hotel room.

She then described how he forced her down on to the bed and penetrated her with two fingers before raping her.

Pictured: The alleged victim told the Court that she was convinced to attend the Police Station by friends.

"At any point," asked Advocate Steenson, "did you give the defendant permission to touch you in a sexual way?"

"No," replied Miss X.

"At any point, did you give the defendant permission for sexual intercourse?"

"No," Miss X confirmed.

"Can you say," continued Advocate Steenson, "roughly how many times you asked him 'stop'?"

"Upwards of 50," Miss X said.

The jury was told that, following the alleged assault, the victim had to accompany the defendant to the group floor of the hotel in order to show him out of the building because this was the only way that he could leave. "I felt very uncomfortable taking him out of the building," she said.

It was, according to telephone records presented by Advocate Steenson, only two minutes after the defendant was captured on CCTV leaving the premises that Miss X tried to phone her mother and two friends to report that she had been the victim of an assault.

She told the jury that, acting on the advice of the two friends, she telephoned the Police and walked to nearby Police Headquarters where she reported the assault to duty officers.

Miss X will remain in the witness box on the second day of the trial today when she will be cross-examined by defence lawyer, Advocate Francesca Pinel, who is representing Mr Kean.

The trial continues.