England: Commonwealth Games swimmer acquitted of rape

Otto Putland, 24, who represented Wales in the 2014 Glasgow games, denied raping the woman after she had sex with his friend, Olympic swimmer Ieuan Lloyd.

The jury at Cardiff Crown Court took just two hours to clear the athlete of rape.

Mr Putland said the sex was consensual.

In July 2015, after spending most of an evening with Mr Lloyd at a nightclub, the woman had sex with him at his house.

She claimed that Mr Putland then arrived at the house and forced himself on her after she said “no”.

The prosecution told the court the woman had been passed on “as if she were chattel”.

However, Mr Putland said the sex was actually consensual and told the jury the woman had been “flirtatious and happy”.

Giving evidence, Mr Putland said: “She was fine until shortly afterwards and she said something along the lines of ‘I feel like I have been passed around’ or something like that.

“I said we hadn’t passed her around.”

Counsel for the accused, Christopher Rees, questioned the complainant on her recollection of events. She said she had told her doctor in 2015 that she had drunk half a litre of Malibu and vodka lemonades on the evening of the encounter.

In cross-examination he asked her why she had not left the room when Putland entered.

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

Mr Rees told the jury in his closing speech that this was not a “court of morals”.

He said: “Bad sex is not rape. Sex after one party has persuaded the other to have sex consensually is not rape. Regretted sex is not rape.”

Mr Rees added that there had been “glaring inconsistencies” in what the woman had told people about the night.

“She had the opportunity to say no and she did not say anything,” he said. “She did not stop it. She did not call out to Ieuan Lloyd. She did not call out to anyone at all. From that you can infer that she did consent, or may have consented.”