A woman allegedly screamed ‘stop’ when she awoke to a man raping her after the pair met at a house party hosted by former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, a court has heard.
Aidan Simmons, 26, allegedly assaulted the woman at her friend’s home after leaving the ticketed event at the boxing star’s north London mansion in September last year.
Simmons and his friend left the party with the alleged victim and her friend. The group then went to a residence in Hackney, the Old Bailey heard.
The woman went straight upstairs to bed and called her boyfriend before falling asleep, jurors heard. The prosecutor said the ‘next recollection’ she had was waking up lying on her back with Simmons having sex with her.
The alleged victim said she remembered saying ‘stop’ but claims he ‘carried on’ and continued to have sex with her, prompting her to tell him ‘stop’ again.
Simmons, of Docklands, east London, denies rape. He agreed he had sexual activity with the woman but insisted it was fully consensual.
Aidan Simmons, 26, (pictured at the Old Bailey today) allegedly assaulted the woman at her friend’s home after leaving the ticketed event at the boxing star’s north London mansion in September last year
He and the alleged victim met at a house party hosted by former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (pictured in April). The party was a ticketed event
Simmons introduced himself to the two women as ‘Sunny’ while he was attending the party at Mr Joshua’s gated mansion with his friend ‘Angus’ on September 18 last year, the jury was told.
Throughout the evening the alleged victim’s friend and Simmons had shared a drink, which ‘developed into flirting’. Prosecutor Julie Whitby said the pair also ‘exchanged a kiss’.
The complainant told her friend she wanted to leave 4am so they ordered an Uber, but the driver ‘didn’t show up or cancelled’. Her friend then arranged from them to ‘get a lift with Sunny and Angus in a different Uber’.
The four of them then made their way back to the friend’s home in Hackney, east London and picked up a bottle of wine on the way. The alleged victim immediately went to bed, called her boyfriend and fell asleep.
She then woke up to find Simmons having sex with her as she laid on her back, the court heard.
‘I just woke up and my eyes were closed, and I could feel obviously, I could feel it, like [Simmons] was inside of me, obviously having sex with me,’ the alleged victim said.
‘Then he was like, something like, “do you want me to stop?”, but my eyes were still closed at the time, and I remember saying ‘stop’ and he carried on, and I said ‘stop’ again.’
Ms Whitby told the jury that the woman ‘was initially confused thinking it was her boyfriend’. She then opened her eyes and saw the ‘man she knew as “Sunny”‘ was on top of her.
The alleged victim ‘started to hit him’, screamed ‘stop’ and ‘what was he doing.’
The woman said: ‘I reached up and when I felt straight hair I was like what the f*** is going on and I open my eyes and I just see him on top of me and then I started going crazy.
‘I said “what the f*** are you doing, I was asleep, you’ve raped me” and then I was hitting him and hitting him. I just remember saying “why would you do that? Why would you do that?”
She added: ‘I actually wanted to kill him. I then chased him downstairs and he’s gone into the living room where my friend and Angus were asleep on the sofa and I just carried on hitting him, I couldn’t breathe.’
The woman told police she ‘literally never spoke one word to him’ and said she felt ‘disgusting’ after the alleged assault, adding: ‘I wish I’d locked the door or something.’
Simmons, (pictured today) of Docklands, east London, denies rape. He agreed he had sexual activity with the woman but insisted it was fully consensual
Ms Whitby told the Old Bailey that the party was held at Mr Joshua’s ‘large house’ which sits on a ‘gated premises’.
The boxing star was present at the party, which required purchased tickets for entrance. She said the parties ‘may have seen him’ at the event, but they ‘did not know him’.
The alleged victim claimed her friend had been invited to the party that day and asked her: ‘Anthony Joshua is having a party, do you want to come?’
She said the house had ‘loads of different rooms. It was a gated house party type thing.’
The alleged victim said Simmons had continually stared at her and her friend at the party. She added: ‘It was an uncomfortable stare, he wanted to make me know he was staring.’
After the party they went back to her friend’s home where she alleges that Simmons attacked her.
Simmons, who has admitted that sexual activity occurred, claims the interactions were consensual.
The court heard that he claimed to have ‘dozed on the cough’ at the Hackney residence before going upstairs. He said he ‘had wanted conversation and had not hoped for sex’.
Referring to Simmons’ interview Ms Whitby told the court: ‘He asked the woman why she didn’t want to hang out with Angus. ‘She said she “wasn’t in the mood” and then he asked her to come into her bed.
‘Once he got in, he then started to kiss her, and she said something like “please do that.”‘. He claimed ‘her eyes were shut and sometimes opening but she awake and was kissing him back.’
The court heard that this ‘went on for around five minutes or so’ but then the alleged victim ‘suddenly’ said she ‘didn’t want sex’.
‘She opened her eyes wide and said, “what are you doing? No I’m not doing that” and he then jumped off her,’ the prosecutor told the court.
Simmons – who appeared in the dock today wearing a black suit, white shirt, and blue tie – was arrested at his home on the evening of September 18 and was taken to the police station. He was interviewed and accepted he was known as ‘Sunny’.
The trial continues tomorrow.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12585469/Woman-screamed-stop-man-raping-Anthony-Joshua-party.html
