A 22-year-old man has been jailed for eight years after he was found guilty of raping a fellow student during Freshers' Week.
Liam Allen, who was studying computer science at the University of Sussex, will also be placed on the sex offenders' register for life after he raped a 20-year-old woman in October 2016. Following a pub crawl he had organised, Allen went back to the unnamed female student's flat in Brighton and ignored her pleas for him to stop.
The BBC reports Allen insisted the victim had given her consent, but the anonymous woman vehemently denies this was the case. After an evening of heavy drinking, the student says she could not recall how he ended up at her flat. When she realised he was on top of her, she struggled to push him off but could not.
"I felt horrible," the victim told police. "I didn't want it to happen. More than once I told him to stop."
The young woman was left with bruising as a result of the assault.
Detective Constable Aran Boyt told the court how, the following day, Allen spoke on the phone to the victim and her boyfriend. "He said he was sick and twisted for sleeping with her but alleged that she was able to consent," the officer said.
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"He clearly thought about his options after the event, because when we searched his mobile phone we found search terms including 'accused of rape', 'minimum sentence for rape', and 'CPS guidelines for rape'."
After a jury found found Liam Allen guilty, His Honour Judge Roger Chapple QC sentenced him. "Your victim was vulnerable through drink. Under the pretence of taking her home to make her safe, you raped her," he told the defendant.
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Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. news, features and health. The route to her heart is a simple combination of pasta and cheese (somewhat ironic considering the whole health writing thing), and she finds it difficult to commit to TV series so currently has about 14 different ones on the go.
