Rapist who attacked woman he met on Tinder on their second date is jailed for five years after claiming text suggesting they have 'rough drunk sex' was 'just banter'

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Kristian Stevenson, 20, from Middlesbrough, was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting the woman after she made it clear she didn't want to have sex with him.

The trial heard Stevenson had earlier joked about rape, saying:

'It is not that bad'.

Stevenson was sentenced on Friday at Teesside crown court and was also put on the sex offenders' register for life.

The 20-year-old raped the victim at her home after their second date where they had eaten a takeaway and watched television.

Stevenson had claimed they had consensual sex and denied sexually touching or having sex with the woman against her will, in November 2016.

But Judge Simon Bourne-Arton told him:

'She made it perfectly clear she was not consenting and you knew she was not consenting

Stevenson told the jury she was 'fully conscious and aware of what was going on' as they had sex and not 'zoned out' as she had described.

In texts in the days afterwards, Stevenson said he asked her how she was feeling because he wanted to know if she had a pleasurable experience, not through guilt.

He added:

'I thought we were getting on great'.

But he started to think something was wrong as her messages were 'blunt'.

She said to him:

'I told you before I didn't want to sleep with you. I've had to push you off and say no twice. You did know at the time it wasn't what I wanted but you continued anyway.'

He replied:

'I know I shouldn't have.'

Asked to explain this in court, he said: > 'I thought she was regretting what happened. Regret that we had sex pretty quickly in the relationship.'

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Shaun Dodds during the trial, he agreed the woman told him 'no sex' in the lead-up to the date and did not respond to his graphic sexualised texts.

He said texts he sent saying he would hold her down and have sex with her were 'just stupid messages I shouldn't have sent'.

He said another message he sent suggesting they have 'rough drunk sex, perfect night' was 'just banter really'.

Mr Dodds asked:

'You knew full well this girl didn't want to have sex, didn't you?'

Stevenson replied:

'She wanted to have sex. She didn't say no.'

Chris Morrison, defending, said Stevenson was polite, hard-working and well-liked with no previous convictions.

After he was remanded in custody following the trial last month, Stevenson sustained a split ear and bruised jaw when he told other prisoners in the holding cell why he had been jailed.

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