A 72-year-old York community campaigner and former city council candidate has gone on trial accused of raping a woman in her twenties.
Gordon Campbell-Thomas denies two counts of raping the woman at a property in York on 14 November, 2020.
Prosecutor Brian Russell told a jury that Campbell-Thomas and the woman had drunk about three bottles of wine and watched a movie before the alleged attacks.
He said that the woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, “struggles to recall” the events of that night and the suspicion was that Campbell-Thomas had spiked her drink.
Campbell-Thomas, a founder member of the St Nicks Nature Reserve in York and who was at the time a volunteer at a charity shop in the city, insisted the sex was consensual and that the alleged victim initiated it.
He asked her to stay the night, but she refused and booked an Uber cab, said Mr Russell.
On the way home in the taxi, the cab driver became concerned and felt “uncomfortable” after the woman told him he was attractive and asked him for his telephone number.
When she returned home, her flatmates were concerned as she was acting in an “uncharacteristically bizarre fashion – not the kind of way she acts when merely on alcohol”, added Mr Russell.
The following day she contacted Campbell-Thomas to ask him what had occurred the night before.
“He told her they had sexual intercourse,” said Mr Russell.
He said that after sitting on a sofa to watch a film, the woman’s memory of events was “non-existent”.
‘May have been drunk’
A few days later, she made a complaint to police and Campbell-Thomas, of Ascot Way, York, was brought in for questioning.
Campbell-Thomas, who once stood as an independent candidate in the City of York Council elections, said the woman was “happy to have sex with him and (that) she took the initiative”.
He accepted she “may have been rather drunk” but insisted that neither of them was “so drunk as to make consent impossible”.
Mr Russell added: “The prosecution say that [the named woman] did not consent to sex.”
[adrotate group=”3″]
He cited the age gap between the defendant and the alleged victim who the prosecution say was not sexually attracted to him.
Mr Russell said although it couldn’t be proved that the woman’s drink had been spiked “by any form of drug”, it was the prosecution’s case that she was spiked that night.
He claimed that would explain her “unusual behaviour” and the fact that she couldn’t remember anything.
The trial continues.
[tptn_list limit=3 daily=1 hour_range=1]