A university administrator has been cleared of raping a student at a pre graduation party after telling a jury the drunken girl had asked for sex.
Christopher Davis, aged 33, a sports coordinator at the University of Wales, was found not guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court of raping the 21-year-old while he was at a conference in Devon last summer.
Other party guests called the police after seeing him having sex with the apparently unconscious woman in a bedroom at the home of the President of the Exeter University Athletics Union.
Davis was at a conference of sports organisers from universities all over Britain and had gone to the party after an awards dinner.
The complainant had just finished her degree at Exeter University and had spent the day shopping for an outfit for her graduation which was due to take place within the next few days.
She had no memory of what happened and said she had passed out after a seven hour drinking session in which she downed almost half a bottle of vodka, shots including a Jager bomb and Apple Sours, cider, and lager.
The woman, now aged 22, met up with friends at the Timepiece club in Exeter and went on to the impromptu party.
She had been carried to a bedroom at the home of Exeter University AU president Joe Batten after falling asleep during a game in which guests drank Archers out of a saucepan.
Davis, of Maes y Wern, Carway, Kidwelly, Dyfed, is a former member of the Royal Horse Artillery who was working for the University of Wales, Trinity St David at Carmarthen as a sports coordinator.
His fiancée and family sobbed with relief in the public gallery as he was found not guilty after ten hours of deliberation. Judge Mr Justice Burnett discharged him from the dock.
Davis told the jury he did not think the woman was too drunk to give consent and he had agreed to sex after they had both gone to bed on the same mattress in a spare room.
He said:"She turned to me and asked me if I wanted sex. I thought she looked nice. I had a fiancée and two children back home but I did not think about my family situation.
"I thought it was going to be sex with no strings attached and my fiancée would never find out about it. I turned towards her and started kissing her.
"She kissed me back and we started to get changed. I took her bottom half off. I started kissing and got on top of her. She was enjoying herself and was a willing partner.
"It is absolute rubbish that I took advantage of a drunken girl. I did not force myself on her. She was not in such a bad state, she spoke clearly. She was a nice girl who came onto me."
He rejected claims from the prosecution that he regarded the woman as 'a piece of sexual meat' and must have known she was too drunk to consent because he had seen her carried unconscious into the room.
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