Graphic: sex attacks




The rape of a 19-year-old student by a computer software engineer after a drunken night out was a lesson in the dangers of binge drinking, a judge said yesterday.

Benjamin Bree, 25, and the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been out together drinking vodka and Red Bull, and cider.

Afterwards Bree took the student back to her halls of residence, where he had sex with her as she lay unconscious on her bed. Although the victim had only a hazy recollection of the attack, she was adamant that she had not consented to sex.

Bree, who had denied the charge, was jailed for five years at Bournemouth Crown Court. Judge Roger Jarvis said that the drunken attack had ruined both their lives.

He told Bree: “She was helpless and in your care. You took advantage of that. She is a strong-minded woman who does not normally off-guard herself by drinking. It was a wretched, distressing and humiliating experience for your victim. Her future life is going to be blighted by all this.

“You had a glittering career ahead of you but all of it has been thrown away. This is a very good lesson to everybody about the dangers of over- consumption of alcohol.”

Stewart Patterson, for the defence, said that Bree had acted out of character. He said: “Drink played a part on both sides, it could be argued.

“She was drinking a great deal more than she could. She was less able to express consent to stop what was going on. He was a young man with everything going for him. He was clearly on the way up before this happened. Drink is not regarded as a mitigation but it could explain why he may have behaved in this way.”

The court was told that Bree met the woman in February while he was visiting friends at Bournemouth University in Dorset. She joined them on a night out in the town and they returned to the halls of residence at 1.30am. The woman went to the bathroom to be sick and Bree helped her off the floor. He returned ten minutes later, by which time she was lying on her bed. He then had sex with her.

She told the court: “I don’t know how much time passed between being sick and being on my bed. I remember lying on my back on the bed and his hand being on the lower part of my body. I remember him touching me with his fingers.”

The student said that she woke to find Bree on top of her. She tried to push him off but to no avail. She said: “I remember saying ‘ow’ and trying to stop it. I did not want to have sex with him. I remember certain things throughout the night and I did not like it.”

After the attack Bree asked the girl if he could stay the night, but she told him to leave and locked the door. Police were called the next day. Bree claimed that the victim consented to sex and that she had enjoyed it. He will remain on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.

The victim told the court that she had drunk far more than she was used to. “The first thing I remember after coming home is being on the floor, lying next to the shower. I was throwing up.” After she was sick, Bree undressed her and put her into her pyjamas.

Nicholas Tucker, for the prosecution, said: “He went out for a cigarette and came back ten minutes later and found her lying face down on the bed in her pyjamas. She had possibly passed out.

“The girl’s next memory is coming to and finding Benjamin performing sex on her. She tried to stop him but he just carried on while she was going in and out of consciousness.” The student called a friend after he had left the room. She said: “I didn’t have an in-depth conversation. I said, ‘Ben raped me’.”

Her mother told the court that she had never seen her daughter in the state she was in after the attack. “She told me she had been raped. She was whispering and afraid someone might hear her. I had never seen her like that before. She was crying and she couldn’t stop twitching.”

Bree graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2002 and had been working for a communications company.

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