I'd never report rape again

THE lawyer who accused chef Peter Bacon of raping her has broken her silence and admitted: "If the same thing ever happened to me again, I WOULDN'T report it."

In an exclusive interview, the bitter 45-year-old said she felt "let down" by the criminal justice system after last week's not guilty verdict.

She claimed she would NEVER have consented to sex with the pub chef-despite being very drunk- because he was "not her type".

She said: "I found him unremarkable, certainly far from witty. I'm fussy about the men I date, I'm quite a snob. For example, I would never date a brick-layer."

The woman, who we cannot name for legal reasons, also said that she:

• Did NOT blame herself for what happened;
• Felt SORRY for Mr Bacon after his identity was revealed;
• Thought the FEMALE jurors were not sympathetic towards her;
• Feared the case would ENCOURAGE men to rape drunk women; and
• SYMPATHISED with a RAPIST she once defended in court.

She told us: "I believed and trusted in the judicial system but I feel very disappointed and let down.

"My experience has taught me there is nothing to be gained by going through the criminal justice system. I couldn't go through what I have again.

"I know that sends out a terrible message, that's a bad thing, a terrible thing to admit."

Winchester Crown Court heard how the woman, who was 44 at the time, had drunk up to SIX bottles of wine before she and Mr Bacon-her pal's housemate-had sex in her flat in Canterbury, Kent, in February last year.

He insisted it was consensual and she performed a sex act on him before they had full intercourse in two positions.

She said it was rape because she would not have willingly had sex with him-but she cannot remember any of it.

Last night she said: "I don't blame myself. I never invited him round and didn't even know he was in my house till the following morning, when I woke up to find myself naked and him naked beside me.

"I never sleep naked because I have two cats and two dogs that share my bed-and they are like my children-so I knew something untoward had happened.

"I did start to question whether I had brought this on myself-but I don't feel any regret about my drinking.

"I concede I was drinking far more than I should have been-far more than was good for me-and as a result I've since cut back on my drinking. But what happened wasn't my fault."

When she awoke, she yelled at

Bacon and he fled-leaving his socks behind. In court he said he ran away in shock after she screamed "rape" at him.

But she said yesterday: "I was really angered by his reaction because I wanted feedback about what had happened that night." Later that day, during a visit to a doctor, she discovered they'd had sex.

She told us: "Before that, I hadn't had sex with anyone for three months."

She claimed if she had done all the things in bed that Mr Bacon said, she would have remembered. But she could not explain why she did not recall anything else that night.

And she insisted she would not have wanted sex, saying: "Peter Bacon has said he was 'fascinated' by me-but this was certainly not reciprocated.

"He wasn't my type, and I certainly didn't feel the need to chase after a 20-something man.

"I am not saying that I've never been attracted to a younger man. Over the last three years, I have had a one-night stand with a 20-something.

"But generally I go for men closer to my own age. Aside from the 20-something, I have only been sexually involved with two other men in that time-a 39-year-old lawyer who turned out to be married, and a journalist much older than myself who I dated for four months before I ended it. I am fussy."

The woman was drinking with a male friend when his housemate, Mr Bacon, turned up.

She said he was uninvited. He told the court he was invited there by their mutual friend.

CLEARED: Peter Bacon, 26

The pal later left, and told the court he had not seen her flirting with the chef while he was there.

He also said she was chatting and appearing normal and not overly drunk.

Mr Bacon recalled how they started kissing and ended up in her bedroom ten minutes after the friend left.

The woman told us: "I had consumed the best part of six bottles of wine. And because I have no memory of what happened, we only have Mr Bacon's version of events to go on. But I cannot accept he misread the signals.

"Our mutual friend said in court he hadn't noticed me giving Mr Bacon the come-on at all, and as far as he was concerned my interest in Mr Bacon was purely platonic.

"So I just cannot accept that in the space of 10 minutes, a person can go from being extremely platonic to engaging in sexual intercourse in a number of different positions with a stranger where neither party pays any heed to preventing a potential pregnancy.

"I am not on the Pill-I had to be given the morning-after pill later."

The woman also said she could not understand why Mr Bacon had not spotted she was out of her head on wine. She claimed she would never have willingly had sex in that state, as alcohol turned her OFF men.

She said: "My nickname is Baggy because, when I drink, my face drops and sags very obviously.

"If I am smoking a cigarette it will burn down all the way to the filter and burn my nails. I talk rubbish. I talk off the point. I'll be asked a question and answer it 10 minutes later.

"It would have been obvious for anyone to spot that I was drunk. My ex-boyfriend would have told the court that drinking never made me frisky. It had the opposite effect.

"I wouldn't want to know when I had been drinking."

She said she decided to go to the cops after much soul-searching. "I was outraged Mr Bacon had come to my home-uninvited by me-and I felt had taken advantage of me in my home in that way," she said.

"But I went to the police with a story that I knew was weak. I knew that, had I been asked to defend someone in a similar situation as Mr Bacon, I would be fairly confident I had an extremely high chance of getting him off.

"It was also obvious to me that the minute I made a complaint, my identity would get out within court and legal circles-the very people whose opinions matter most to me.

"But I felt I had a moral duty to other women. Unless women are going to report when they think they have been raped, unless we try and do something about it, we will forever remain in The Dark Ages."

Ruined

She then went on to say the reason she did not get the verdict she wanted was because seven of the 11 jurors were female. Out of the five original male jurors, one was sent home sick on the second day of the trial.

The woman said: "In date rape trials, women tend to side with men. That is their inherent nature. They judge other women more harshly. That is my experience."

By law, the woman's identity was kept secret from the public-but Mr Bacon was named as soon as he was charged. He said his life had been ruined.

She said she believed "very strongly" that anyone who reported a rape should retain anonymity.

But she admitted: "I do feel sorry for Peter Bacon that his picture was all over the papers before the verdict. Whatever has happened, I don't feel that is right. Why should people, until they are convicted, be named and shamed?

"Men accused of sexual violence can be vilified and subjected to vigilante attacks-and I don't condone that sort of behaviour at all."

She also fears her failed case will put off other women from going to cops. She said: "In my opinion, this case has actually been a backwards step in the overall debate of: What does the judicial system do in these sort of circumstances?

"It would seem that unless a victim can categorically state she was raped and can remember being raped, you're wasting your time."

"In certain circumstances drunken sex quite clearly isn't rape. But when people are incapable of making a decision then, in a civilised society, you have to be protected by the law.

"And, like it or not, young women do get themselves into this situation all the time because we have a binge culture. The implication of the judgement is that, if a woman is drunk and something happens to her, it's her own fault for getting into that state.

"That is a charter for the opportunist and a charter for the predatory serial rapist like John Worboys, out there preying on drunk women.

"And that's so dangerous."

While talking about the law, she recalled a time she herself defended a rapist.

She said: "I had to deal with a young man who was convicted of rape in circumstances that beggared belief. He said he'd had consensual sex with a girl he'd met in a club. They'd kissed, cuddled and even had sex in public.

"She'd gone home, never said anything for a month and it was only when she discovered she was pregnant that she told her deeply religious parents that she'd been raped.

"He ended up being convicted. He got nine years. When I encountered him, he had already appealed once but we were told there weren't any grounds for a further appeal.

"It was heartbreaking."

She went on to admit her own mum had been horrified when she told her her version of events.

She said: "Because of her morality and beliefs, my mother went absolutely mad at me for being so drunk in the first place.

"She didn't want me to pursue the case. She thought I would end up humiliating myself in some way.

"Women of her generation didn't make a habit of pouring wine down their throats and she considered that inconceivable and reprehensible.

"But my dad's view is that I did the right thing even if I didn't get the result-because I stuck up for what I believed in."

*The woman did not receive any payment for this article and has asked for a contribution to be made to East Kent Rape Crisis.

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Drink undermines ability to consent

By Assistant Commissioner John Yates of Scotland Yard, ACPO national lead on Rape.

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THE outcome of the Bacon case is bad news for rape victims. My concern is that women will be even further deterred from reporting to police cases of sexual assault because they will fear the verdict: "It was your own fault."

In my view the consumption of a vast amount of alcohol, whether voluntary or not, and the subsequent incapacitation of an individual does not - cannot - provide the basis for informed consent to sex.

The police view is that incapacitation and disorientation through consumption of alcohol prevents any person from providing true consent.

The police will continue to thoroughly investigate allegations of this nature and fight to bring the best evidence before courts.

Conviction would not have ring of justice

By Gerald Butler, QC, former senior judge at Southwark Crown Court

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JURIES do not take kindly to women who allege rape when they have voluntarily consumed large quantities of alcohol and then taken themselves off to bed with the nearest man.

That was my experience over many years. So I am not at all surprised at the result of the trial of Peter Bacon. It was most unlikely that a jury would be satisfied of guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

And it is difficult to see why the Crown Prosecution Service pursued this case.

When binge-drinking women invite men into their bedrooms, commit a sex act, get into bed with them and then claim they were too drunk to know whether they gave consent for intercourse, a conviction for rape would not have the ring of justice for me.

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