Woman tells court of ‘moment top swimmer Otto Putland raped her’

A woman who has accused a Commonwealth Games swimmer of rape has told a court he entered a bedroom and started taking his clothes off after she had consensual sex with his friend.

Otto Putland, who competed for Wales in the 2014 Glasgow games, is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting her after an evening out in Cardiff in July 2015.

The woman said after she had sex with Putland’s friend Ieuan Lloyd in his bedroom, Mr Lloyd left the room and started talking to Putland.

Putland, 24, then came in and sat on the bed and started taking off his shoes, she said in a video-recorded interview played at Cardif Crown Court.

She said: “When he started taking off his clothes that’s when I texted my friend saying ‘help something might happen’. Ieuan closed the door and he left me and Otto.”

The woman said she was lying on the bed wearing a skirt and top but no underwear, and that it was pitch black in the room.

She said: “He lay on top of me and that’s when I was saying ‘you can’t pass me around’ and he said ‘we’re not passing you around’.

“I told him I didn’t want to have sex with him and he continued trying to kiss me.”

The woman said Putland then removed his boxer shorts and she put her hands between her legs to cover her genitals.

She said: “He said ‘do you want me to put a condom on?’ So he went and grabbed one and put one on.”

Jurors heard Putland then said it was fine, they did not have to have sex and could just kiss.

“So I moved my hand but I was still crying and just kept turning my head away from him,” said the woman.

“After I removed my hand he just put it in but he said to me ‘don’t worry, it’s just the tip’.

“I used my arms to keep him at a distance and push him away.”

The woman said she told Putland she needed to go to the bathroom and he stopped.

Prosecuting barrister Janet McDonald told the court the woman was passed on “as if she were chattel”.

Ms McDonald said the woman saw a forensic doctor two days later but did not report the matter to police until November 2016, initially saying she did not want her mother to know what had happened.

The woman said she was “really drunk”, but she knew what she was doing.

Cross-examining her, defence barrister Christopher Rees said she told the doctor in 2015 she had drunk half a litre of Malibu and vodka and lemonade.

Mr Rees said: “There were gaps in your memory when you gave the account to the police 18 months later.”

The woman replied: “I can remember most of the night, it is just the one part I can’t remember anything of at all” – what happened after she came out of the bathroom.

Mr Rees asked why she had not got up and left when Putland came into the room.

The woman said: “I froze. I am not sure… I wasn’t thinking straight. I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen at that time.”

Putland, of Dinedor, near Hereford, denies one count of rape. The trial continues.

(c) Sky News 2018: Woman tells court of ‘moment top swimmer Otto Putland raped her’