A pharmaceutical consultant raped a young woman at his flat after attending a party, a court heard.
Rowan Nidd, 42, allegedly attacked the woman after she had drunk 12 glasses of prosecco at the party and taken a taxi to his Islington home, Harrow crown court was told.
She was “drunk” following the event in 2015 and struggled to walk in a straight line, but woke up the next morning to find Nidd on top of her, the court heard.
Nidd, a University of Edinburgh graduate, denies raping and sexually assaulting the woman, arguing instead that he had to fend off her advances at the party and at his flat.
The woman, giving evidence from behind a screen, said she has “snapshots of memory and some of these are of the worst moments that night”, adding that she has a “clear” recollection of waking up in bed with Nidd.
“I was asleep, I was drunk and wasn’t able to consent to anything he was doing”, she said. Nidd claims the woman had been flirting with him during the party in a central London pub. The woman said she had kissed him at the pub but it was “quite fleeting”, adding: “It was just that party mode, it’s nice to flirt a bit.”
Nidd claims that on the taxi ride to his flat she told him “I get really horny, slutty when I’m drunk”, but she said this was “a lot of bravado”.
“I know I didn’t want anything to happen. I was struggling to walk in a straight line, I remember falling into the wall,” she said. “I came around in his bed and he was pushing against me. I said to myself ‘it’s not happening, it’s not happening’.”
The woman said she was “shocked” when she woke at about 5am, and texted a friend to say: “I thought I was going to an after-party and I’ve woken up at Rowan’s. I don’t know what to do. He’s been trying to have sex with me, but he won’t stop.”
She added that she does not find Nidd attractive, and denied she had been “sexually provocative” at the party. Nidd, who now lives in St Albans, denies rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration.
The trial continues.
