Alleged rape victim secretly recorded conversations

Monday 08 April 2019

A young woman who claims she was raped in a hotel was so concerned about the behaviour of her alleged assailant that she secretly recorded a series of conversations between them, a jury heard this morning.

In recordings played to the Royal Court, the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, repeatedly told Brett Kean, who is charged with rape and two counts of indecent assault, to stop touching her and harassing her in the days leading up to the alleged offences.

His trial, which is expected to last four days, began this morning in the Royal Court following the swearing in of a jury of seven men and five women.

Pictured: Mr Kean's trial is taking place in the Royal Court.

Outlining the Crown’s case, Advocate David Steenson told the jury that Mr Kean and the alleged victim had consensual sex on 10 July 2016 at the Sandranne Hotel in St Helier where they were both staying, but that Miss X subsequently regretted this and repeatedly told Mr Kean that she did not wish to continue a relationship with him.

However, the prosecution allege that he refused to accept the situation and, having moved out of the hotel, returned in the early hours of Saturday 16 July when he persuaded Miss X to let him back inside and into her room.  There, the prosecution claim that Miss X was subjected to a five-minute rape ordeal. Mr Kean is also charged with two counts of indecent assault relating to digital penetration.

Advocate Steenson explained that the case involved events over a six-day period in July 2016. There had been a delay in bringing the case to Court because of the defendant’s ill-health.

Although there was no dispute that Mr Kean and Miss X had consensual sex after drinking together in the hotel bar, Advocate Steenson told the jury that the defendant had become increasingly obsessed with Miss X in the days that followed, repeatedly calling her mobile and sending her texts at night, and trying to gain entry to her room against her wishes.

It was the defendant’s behaviour that caused Miss X to record three meetings between them during which Advocate Steenson said it was clear that she did not wish to continue the relationship.

“It is the Crown’s case that this line in the sand never sank in with the defendant,” Advocate Steenson said. During one of the meetings, the Crown Advocate told the jury, Miss X could be heard saying ‘no’ 22 times to advances made by the defendant. 

The jury heard that, immediately after the alleged rape in the early morning of 16 July 2016, Miss X first tried to telephone her mother and then spoke on the phone to a friend, before walking to Police headquarters where she told officers that she had been raped.

Advocate Steenson told the jury that the alleged offences had been reported within twenty minutes of Mr Kean being picked up on CCTV leaving the hotel. Mr Kean was arrested later that day.

Reading extracts from transcripts of interviews with the police, Advocate Steenson told the jury that the defendant gave inconsistent and contradictory accounts of the encounter in Miss X’s room.

“In these interviews, the prosecution is not entirely sure what the defendant is saying. It seems that the main issue is consent,” he said.

Mr Kean, who is represented by Advocate Francesca Pinel, denies the charges against him.

Pictured top: Hotel Sandranne, where Mr Kean was alleged to have raped Miss X. (Google Maps)