A US military serviceman accused of raping a woman on three occasions smuggled her on to an RAF base in the boot of his car, a court heard.
Jurors were told that American airman Keharron Lee Bogstad, 24, committed the offences against a woman he met online while he worked at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire between November 26 2020 and February 28 2021.
Northampton Crown Court heard that Bogstad, who denies rape, said he “genuinely and reasonably” believed the woman, who cannot be named, had been consenting, because they had a pre-existing sexual relationship that sometimes “involved BDSM (bondage, discipline/domination, sadism/submission, and masochism) practices”.
Bogstad, still of RAF Croughton, sat in the dock on Tuesday wearing a navy suit and tie, with a black coat over the top, while he listened to prosecutor Paul Jarvis KC open the case.
Mr Jarvis said the woman met Bogstad on a website and that he would smuggle her on to the base in the boot of his car.
He told the jury of five men and seven women: “The fact that he worked for the US air force and had to smuggle her on to his base no doubt added to the excitement, in her mind.”
But he added: “Most of the sexual encounters in which they engaged were consensual, even many of the more sexually adventurous encounters that involved BDSM practices.
“It was only in respect of the more violent forms of activity that she raised an objection while that activity was under way, only, we say, to be ignored by Mr Bogstad.”
The prosecutor said there were three occasions when Bogstad, who was 19 at the time of the alleged offences, would have “no reasonable belief” that she had consented, including one occasion when he allegedly strangled her.
Mr Jarvis said: “The prosecution’s case is that (the woman) was smitten with Mr Bogstad and was prepared, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, to engage in BDSM practices in order to please him.
“However, there were times when (she) made it clear to him that she wanted him to stop, but he carried on anyway.”
Mr Jarvis said Bogstad told police after his arrest that “they engaged in rough, consensual sexual activity” but he “would always stop if she wanted him to”.
The prosecutor added that a theme of their Snapchat messages given to police was Bogstad’s “desire to push boundaries”.
Mr Jarvis said: “In the course of the episodes that form the basis of the counts in this indictment, it is the prosecution’s case that Mr Bogstad’s desire overcame his concern.”
A video of the woman’s police interview was played to the jury, in which she said: “He was going to put me in his boot and smuggle me into the base. I was really scared but I just thought I trusted him.”
She added: “He made me feel safe. I thought he liked me. I thought he was really nice when he wasn’t having sex with me. I was really lonely, I did not have anyone.”
The woman told police she “went along with it”, and added: “I just didn’t see a point in saying ‘No, I don’t like this’. He would have done it anyway.”
She said in her interview that on one occasion, it started as “normal sex” before Bogstad allegedly strangled her and took a photo of her passed out.
Jurors heard that when the woman started a relationship with a different man, she described to him how she and Bogstad had “forced sex”, which she “assumed was normal”.
She did not tell her partner that Bogstad raped her, the court heard, but she described her time spent with him as “bad”.
The court heard that the woman’s father had asked her about red marks on her neck, which she had previously said were caused by stubble, but she later told him they were “hand marks”.
Mr Jarvis told the jury: “She told her father there had been times when she had not wanted to have sex with Mr Bogstad, but she went along with it for his sake.”
The trial continues.
