Alleged rapist said accusations made him feel “like I’ve been raped also”

Wednesday 15 May 2019

A man alleged to have had sex with a woman without her consent, causing her to become pregnant, told Police he was sexually abused as a child, and that being accused of rape made him feel “like I’ve been raped also”.

The comments from the Police interview of Manuel Ricardo dos Ramos Aguilar (24), who denies one charge of rape in autumn 2017, were read to the Royal Court on the second day of his jury trial.

During his interview, Mr Aguilar also expressed shock that his DNA was discovered in the embryo tissue of a termination that he had himself paid for.

Repeatedly maintaining his innocence, he told officers investigating the alleged rape of a woman too drunk to remember anything about their encounter that he was also so drunk that he too could recall nothing about the incident.

Mr Aguilar told officers that he did remember taking the woman, Miss X – whose identity is protected in the trial – back to her home where he said that she tried to kiss him and then took her clothes off and told him to have sex with her.  When he refused, he said that she became abusive.

Pictured: Mr Aguilar paid for a termination for Miss X, who had fallen pregnant after they had sex, and gave a contribution to her loss of earnings while it took place.

He later remembered waking up with his shirt unbuttoned and his trousers and boxer shorts around his ankles. “I felt like something must have happened. I thought something must have happened. I felt worried and sick. I’ve tried to explain what I can remember – everything that I know. I feel guilty because I don’t know what happened,” he said during the interview.

The jury heard that Mr Aguilar told officers that he had agreed to pay £185 to Miss X to meet the cost of her termination and subsequently gave her a further £285 as a contribution to her loss of earnings while the termination was taking place. He told Police that he wanted to help her.

During the first part of his first interview, which lasted more than an hour, Mr Aguilar asserted many times that he did not know what happened between him and the woman after he helped accompany her back to her flat following an evening celebration at the Royal Yacht Hotel. 

In January 2018, two months after his first interview, Mr Aguilar expressed incredulity to Police that DNA testing linked him positively with tissue which was taken from Miss X following her termination. “Do you know what the shock is like?,” he asked interviewing officers.

Pictured: Advocate Adam Harrison, who is representing Mr Aguilar.

They had put it to Mr Aguilar that his claim of being too drunk to remember was inconsistent with the accounts of four people who had seen him while he accompanied Miss X back to her home, including a paramedic who told Police that, “You would not have known that he had had a drink.”

Officers read to Mr Aguilar their statements, all of which contained assessments of Miss X as showing signs of extreme intoxication, and they referred him to a text message which he had later sent from Miss X’s flat to his sister in which he referred to her as having passed out. 

Earlier the jury heard from Miss X’s employer who told the jury that he had heard Mr Aguilar say that “I’d ride that wagon’ in alleged reference to Miss X.  However, in cross examination, Miss X’s employer admitted that he could not remember when the comment was made, nor did he hear any conversation before or after which would allow him to put the remark into any context.

Mr Aguilar denied that he had ever felt any attraction for Miss X or asked her to go out with him.

The jury also heard evidence from the last member of the group of people who called an ambulance to attend to Miss X when she collapsed in the street. One man told the jury that Miss X was "seemingly unconscious" and unresponsive to touch or efforts to communicate.

Pictured: The prosecution and defence cases are expected to conclude today.

He described how he tried unsuccessfully several times to phone the two emergency contacts in Miss X’s mobile phone because he was unsure of the relationship she had with Mr Aguilar.

He told the jury that he was sceptical that Miss X had fully understood the ambulance paperwork which she had signed and that he had had to support her physically as they walked back to her flat after the ambulance had left the scene.

En route, he had been surprised by comments which the defendant had made when he repeated that he was a "good guy" and that "nothing would happen".

“They seemed out of place. They were defensive statements when no-one had posed an attacking question or without anyone probing”, he said.

Advocate Adam Harrison, who is representing Mr Aguilar, put it to the man that he had found it difficult to say how intoxicated his client was because he himself had been drinking which had impaired his ability to make an accurate assessment.

Both Advocate Harrison and Advocate Emma Hollywood, for the Crown, probed his recollection of Miss X walking unaided up a flight of steps outside her flat, prompting the Deputy Bailiff, Mr Tim Le Cocq, who is presiding to intervene: “A moment ago you said that it was possible that Miss X was holding on to the bannister. Was it, therefore, possible that she was not holding on to the bannister? So, in fact, you don’t remember whether she was holding on to the bannister or not.”

It is expected that the prosecution and defence cases will conclude today. The trial continues.

Catch up on the case...

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