Businessman denies rape

A BUSINESSMAN from Woolmer Green has denied raping a woman at his home.

Self-employed Ian Mitchell, 38, of Mardlebury Court, appeared at Cambridge Crown Court this week accused of raping the woman, now 25, in the summer of last year.

The pair had been drinking and taking cocaine on one afternoon and evening in July.

Prosecutor Isabel Delamere said it then got late and the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, agreed to stay in Mitchell’s bed.

The alleged victim, speaking from behind a screen on Monday, said she had woken up with Mitchell on top of her having sex.

Mitchell does not deny they had had sex, but insisted it was consensual.

They were previously known to each other, but met up again at a gathering and had decided to go for a drink several days later.

The woman claimed there had been no romantic contact prior to the meeting and wanted to go to Mitchell’s home, after visiting two pubs, to use his computer for job-hunting.

She alleged that after they drank vodka and took cocaine, Mitchell had put his hand up her vest top to be told to stop, which he did.

The alleged victim said: “I thought he understood where he stands.”

The jury of five men and seven women were later told by the prosecution that she was ordered to bed by Mitchell who “pulled the plug out of the computer”.

Although he had said he would sleep on the sofa, Mitchell then lay down beside her on the bed for a while, she fell asleep and was woken by him allegedly raping her.

Kaja Reiff-Musgrove, defending, pointed to a string of flirtatious text messages on an almost daily basis between the pair leading up to the July meeting, which she said showed the relationship between them was based on more than friendship.

Cross-examining the woman, she said: “After your day of drinking with Ian Mitchell your resolve to not sleep with him was lower, and you had sex of your own free will and your own instigation.”

To which the complainant said: “Not at all.”

The trial continues.