Rapper Slowthai raped two women with friend at after-show party, court hears
Rapper Slowthai raped two women at a house party after a gig, along with a friend, a court has been told.
The Grammy-nominated star, whose real name is Tyron Frampton, 29, and his co-accused Alex Blake-Walker, 27, are accused of raping the two women at a flat in Oxford on 8 September, 2021.
Both men deny the charges, and say all sexual activity was with the participation and consent of the women.
Frampton, 29, arrived at Oxford Crown Court for the second day of his trial accompanied by his wife, singer Anne-Marie.
WARNING: Allegations that some readers may find upsetting
The alleged attack is said to have taken place following Frampton’s performance at The Bullingdon music venue in the city, the night before.
Oxford Crown Court heard that one of the complainants – described as a “huge fan” of the rapper – had seen Frampton in a restaurant before the show and after speaking with him had been added to the VIP list.
Heather Stangoe, prosecuting, told the jury that after the gig this complainant met a group of friends – including the second complainant – at Frampton’s tour bus.
Ms Stangoe told the jury the “sole purpose” of Frampton and Blake-Walker going to the house party “was to secure sexual gratification”.
Frampton arrives at Oxford Crown Court with his wife, singer Anne-Marie. Pic: PA
‘High-fiving’ and ‘tag teams’
She said: “It mattered not to them whether the subjects of their attention consented or not. As it happened the two women in this case did not but that did not matter to these two defendants.”
She alleged the women were raped simultaneously at one point, with the defendants said to have “high-fived, discussed ‘tag teams’ and contemplated swapping the girls”.
She went on: “Their behaviour whilst sexually assaulting two females – who they had isolated from their friends – the encouragement and the assistance they gave one another when they became concerned that the females would run away has resulted in them being jointly charged with oral and vaginal rape.”
Ms Stangoe says Frampton met the second complainant, who had not been at the performance, at the Bullingdon Bar, and shared a shot of tequila with her.
She said she “had been drinking for many hours” and had also taken ketamine and cocaine and continued to drink and take drugs until just before the incident.
The prosecution said that although she was intoxicated, rendering her vulnerable, her state did not mean that she was incapable of consenting.
‘No phones, and no boys’
She says the girls declined an invitation to remain on the tour bus and travel to the next tour date in Southampton, and instead went to their friend’s house.
Ms Stangoe says Frampton stipulated that there would be “no phones, and no boys,” before agreeing to attend the party, a restriction she says suggested Frampton and Blake-Walker’s “mindset from the outset”.
The prosecutor said Frampton, Blake-Walker and two other men went with the group of girls to the property. She said the attack took place on a flat roof through a window of the property, and “happened very quickly”.
When the attack was interrupted, after initially being impeded by Blake-Walker holding the window shut, she said: “Frampton immediately jumped from the roof into the garden, ran through and out of the house. Blake-Walker left the property. The other two men also left.”
Ms Stangoe says the incident was reported to the police that night, after which the defendants were arrested and interviewed, denying the charges.
‘The effect of celebrity’
The prosecution alleges Frampton had twice raped one of the complainants while being encouraged by Blake-Walker.
Blake-Walker is accused of raping the other complainant while being encouraged by Frampton.
It is said they both sexually assaulted the woman Frampton is alleged to have raped.
In opening remarks to the jury, Patrick Gibbs KC, representing Frampton, suggested the events that night between his client and one of the complainants were consensual.
He said there was a difference between on the one hand “willingly participating in something which is spontaneous and chaotic and in the excitement of the intoxication of the moment and on the other regretting it afterwards”.
He also said “the effect of celebrity” may have led people to “enthusiastically do things they wouldn’t otherwise do”.
Sheryl Nwosu, representing Blake-Walker, said her client had always denied forcing one of the women to engage in sexual activity, and denied any sexual contact with the woman Frampton is accused of raping.
Frampton, who was nominated for a Grammy in 2021 and a Mercury prize in 2019, was removed from the Glastonbury, Leeds and Reading festival line-up after being charged last year.
The trial – which is expected to last three weeks – continues.
Hollywood legend Gene Hackman and his wife have been found dead at their home in the New Mexico city of Santa Fe, police have said.
Hackman, 95, and is wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, were found dead with their dog, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said.
A statement to Sky News said: “We do not believe foul play was a factor in their deaths, however exact cause of death has not been determined at this time.”
Spokesperson Denise Avila said deputies responded to a request to do a welfare check on Wednesday around 1.45pm local time to find the couple and their dog dead at the scene.
Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa in 1991. Pic: Dave Lewis/Shutterstock
Hackman won an Oscar for a leading role in The French Connection, a 1971 action movie by William Friedkin, and another for best supporting actor in Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western, Unforgiven.
The French Connection earned him his first Oscar. Pic: 20th Century Fox/D’Antoni Productions/Schine-Moore Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
He was also known for playing Lex Luthor in the Superman films of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Roles in the Francis Ford Coppola mystery thriller The Conversation and in the historical drama Mississippi Burning, where he starred as an FBI agent alongside Willem Dafoe, helped cement his career as one of Hollywood’s greats.
Playing Lex Luthor alongside Christopher Reeve’s Superman. Pic: THA/Shutterstock
Long career
The former US Marine appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage, during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.
He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde.
He is also remembered for playing Captain Frank Ramsey alongside Denzel Washington in the 1995 thriller Crimson Tide.
He starred alongside Denzel Washington in Crimson Tide. Pic: Richard Foreman/THA/Shutterstock
In the early 2000s, he starred as an eccentric patriarch in The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson.
Hackman’s final film appearance was in 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, after which he retired from acting and began co-writing adventure novels with friend and underwater archaeologist Daniel Lenihan.
“It’s very relaxing for me,” Hackman told Empire Magazine in 2020. “I don’t picture myself as a great writer, but I really enjoy the process.”
Playing the villain in Unforgiven. Pic: Everett/Shutterstock
‘He could play anyone’
Michael Caine revered Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he had known while presenting him with the Cecil B DeMille Award in 2003.
Arakawa was a classical pianist. The couple married in 1991 and lived outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hackman had three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017.
Star Trek star George Takei said: “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen,” in a tribute on X.
“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it.
“He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was,” Takei wrote on X.
“He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”
Read more from arts and entertainment:
Oscars A-Z: From Anora to a (disqualified) Hans Zimmer
Gossip Girl and Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress dies aged 39
Gene Hackman won his second Oscar in 1993. Pic: AP
Irish comedian Dara O Briain called Hackman “the finest screen actor ever”.
“Not a single duff performance, in a long, long career,” he wrote in a post on X.
Hackman was versatile on screen, working with a face that he described to the New York Times in 1989 as that of “your everyday mine worker.”
StudioCanal, the UK arm of the leading European film studio, called Hackman’s death “a colossal loss for cinema” in a tribute posted on X.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway