Australian cricketer Alex Hepburn will be in the jail for the next five years after being convicted with charges of rape.
The charges are about events dated back in April 2017, when the cricketer was “fired up” about an idea of sleeping with women. The 23-year old attacked a woman who was sleeping in his teammates’ bedroom.
This lady was attacked on the very first day of a sexual contest “game” that the cricketer had set up on a WhatsApp group.
The judge, Jim Tindal told the “immature” cricketer that he and one of his former teammate had agreed to “pathetic sexist game to collect as many sexual encounters as possible.”
“You probably thought it was laddish behaviour at the time. In truth, it was foul sexism. It demeaned women and trivialised rape – a word you personally threw around lightly,” the judge added.
Breaking: 23 yo Alex Hepburn from Perth sentenced to 5 years jail in the UK for oral rape of a woman two years ago.
— Laurel Irving (@laurelirving7) April 30, 2019
The judge in Alex Hepburn case was scathing of the sex competition he set up with mates before the rape: ‘pathetic sexist game… it was foul sexism which demeaned women’.
— Laurel Irving (@laurelirving7) April 30, 2019
Michelle Heeley QC, the barrister of the Australian convict, said that her client had expressed guilt.
The victim came out to call her ordeal as “evil” and “heinous crime”. This move of the victim was tagged as a “brave” victim statement, by the judge. The judge further went to praise the victim, for disclosing evidence through two trials: “I hope she can now finally be able to look to her future which will be, I am sure, bright.”
Earlier this month, when there was a retrial held, the jury had found Hepburn to be guilty of oral rape. However, he was not convicted with any further charges of rape relating to the same victim.
The Worcester Crown Court misheard the victim in a four-day trial. The court hence, thought that the victim had sex with Joe Clark, who happens to be Hepburn’s then-county teammate, after meeting him at a nightclub.
She told the jurors that she had consensual sex with Clark. However, Clark then had left the bedroom in the early hours to be sick in a bathroom where he passed out.
The cricketer informed the jurors that before he found the woman on the mattress in the apartment he was sharing with Clark, he had drunk 20 bottles of beer. Hepburn also claimed that the woman had rolled in the bed and kissed him, and had indicated consensual sex.
Perth man and former cricketer Alex Hepburn (at the back in a suit) has arrived at court in England to be sentenced for rape. pic.twitter.com/4RWI2KzwWK
— Laurel Irving (@laurelirving7) April 30, 2019
The woman, however, differed saying that she was asleep when this encounter occurred and that she believed that she was with Clark till Hepburn spoke in his Australian accent.
During the trial, the Australian admitted of sending “disgusting, horrible and embarrassing” WhatsApp messages. He had done this while he was setting the rules of a sexual conquest game which involved other cricketers as well. According to a previous “stat-game”, it was highlighted that Hepburn had sex with 60 women. However, these WhatsApp exchanged were not put forth in front of the jury that convicted him.
Also, another message that described Clark and Hepburn to be a “pair of tens” who “should be banging models” was ruled as inadmissible in a pre-trial hearing.
