A pensioner accused of raping a woman he met in a pub told police any sexual contact was consensual – despite admitting she was “absolutely minced”.
Alexander Beaton took the 57-year-old woman back to his home after a night out in Forres and said that on a scale of one to 10 in terms of drunkenness, the woman, who he had never met before, was a “10 or even a 12”.
He denies that charge and instead argues that the “foreplay” he performed on the woman was “consensual” despite the woman being unresponsive on his floor moments earlier.
Accused told police that woman was ‘minced’
On the second day of the trial, the jury was played a recording of Beaton’s police interview in the wake of the incident.
He claimed the woman was “out cold, unconscious and not responding” on his hallway floor so he woke her up and told her she needed to “either go home or get to bed where you can be comfy”, before lifting her onto his own bed.
“As I lay her down she grabbed me, snogged me and pulled me over,” he said. “She was enjoying it just as I was”.
He told officers how the pair had some sexual contact, to her enjoyment, before she said “stop, stop, stop”.
Beaton, who worked offshore in the oil industry at the time, said: “I said ‘what’s going on? You want this as much as I do’. I told her to get her clothes on and get out of my house. I was angry.”
He added: “She said I had raped her and I told her not to be absurd. It was consensual.”
‘I was on a promise’
During the interview Detective Sergeant Kevin McGee asked him: “You told us she was unconscious, out cold – how can anybody give you consent in that state? That didn’t ring any alarm bells in your head that she was not in any state to consent to any sexual activity?”
Beaton told him: “I assumed I was on a promise and that we would have sexual intercourse when we got back to the house. It was never talked about, it just happened when I picked her up off of the vestibule and she kissed me on the bed.”
He also said he had drunk around 10 pints of Guinness that night, an amount he consumed daily when onshore, and had taken liquid Viagra when the pair got home.
Woman told jury she fell asleep
She said she met Beaton in Legends Bar that evening and the pair, along with others, moved on to The Eagle pub before going home together to drink more.
She told advocate depute Chris McKenna that she was feeling “very drunk” after drinking double gin and tonics then multiple vodka and cokes during the course of the evening and at Beaton’s home.
She said: “I know I fell asleep either on the bathroom or hallway floor. I woke up in bed with my skirt by my waist and my tights and underwear pulled down past my knees. I don’t know how long I had been asleep.”
She said Beaton was on top of her and penetrating her, pinning her down by her wrists as she began to fight him off.
Photo evidence from police showed Beaton’s face sporting a black eye and more than a dozen scratches.
Beaton’s defence counsel Edith Forrest said he had suffered these injuries when he was pulled over by the woman as they walked back home from the pub.
However, Beaton told police: “Those were scratches she gave me when we were getting amorous”.
Medical evidence and mistaken identity
Earlier in the trial, Dr Gordon Guthrie, a forensic physician, confirmed to the court that Beaton had more than a dozen scratches, consistent with those caused by fingernails, on his face, neck and head.
Dr Guthrie also said the woman had sustained an injury to her genitals which was “three to four times more likely” to be in keeping with non-consensual penetration than consensual sex.
The court also heard how the woman spent the whole evening mistaking Beaton for a different man, whom she had known for seven or eight years and felt safe with.
She didn’t realise her mistake until police informed her that the man, who she continued to name throughout her statement, was not who she thought he was.
The trial, before Lord Richardson, continues.
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