Posted on 04/21/2006 3:11:07 AM PDT by kingattax
A MAN who claims he mistakenly had sex with "the wrong woman" after entering a dark bedroom at the home of a Sydney magazine editor was yesterday committed to stand trial for rape.
Paul John Chappell, 31, was invited back to the editor's Bondi flat after they met during a night out.
The pair went to bed and Chappell later got up to use the bathroom.
But Chappell claims he mistakenly returned to the wrong bedroom, where the editor's 23-year-old flatmate was asleep.
He got into bed with the flatmate and initiated sex, allegedly believing she was the other woman.
The flatmate participated because she thought it was her own boyfriend who had come to bed after falling asleep in the loungeroom.
When she turned on the light, the "hysterical" woman saw Chappell in her bed and realised her boyfriend was still asleep on the couch.
Chappell intends to plead not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent.
"The defence case is he made a mistake," barrister Wayne Flynn told the Downing Centre Court Local yesterday. "He went into the wrong room and had sex with the wrong person.
"He thought he was having sex with the person he went home with.
"The (alleged victim) says she believed she was having sex with her boyfriend. She made a mistake as to who she was having sex with and so did the defendant."
In a statement to police on the morning of the incident on October 1, the alleged victim said she had gone to bed about 2am, leaving her drunk boyfriend asleep on the lounge.
"The next thing I remember was waking up to someone having sex with me," she said. "I assumed straight away that it was (my boyfriend) because I wouldn't even consider that it would be anyone else."
She also said: "When the light is out, it is black in our bedroom, you can't see anything."
To her dismay, she later turned on the light and realised it was Chappell, not her boyfriend, in the bed.
"I was totally gutted that it was him and not (my boyfriend)," she said. "I went straight into (my flatmate's) bedroom hysterical."
The screaming woman pushed Chappell out the front door shortly before her boyfriend woke up and was told what happened.
"(He) was so beside himself and enraged that he said he was going out to find (Chappell) and kill him," she said.
In her statement to police, the magazine editor said Chappell was "pretty drunk" when they arrived home and they went to her bed but she refused to have sex.
"He got up and went to the toilet," she said.
"After what seemed like five minutes I assumed he had passed out on the lounge or something, so I rolled over and went to sleep. The next thing I remember was (my flatmate) running into my room quite hysterical."
Magistrate Margaret Quinn committed Chappell to stand trial but said it "may well be a difficult case for the prosecution" to prove.
A date for Chappell's trial will be set next week.
Couldn't she be charged as well?
Can't we all just get along?
She wanted to have sex, but then, after the fact, she decided it was the wrong guy?
Boy, am I in trouble!!
"That wasn't so good"
/rape
You're kidding, right?
Not without a thourough & complete trashing of the accused's rep
She couldn't tell it who it was until after the light was turned on?
What's wrong with this picture?
I don't believe this gal for a second.
I mean, come on... she couldn't tell the difference between her boyfriend and another man during sex? Either she is totally stupid or she's lying.
I don't care how drunk I am, if I was in bed with a woman other than my own partner I would know it the moment I touched her even if it was pitch black dark.
This is just too weird for words.
Whether she knew, or didn't know, that's not the point. The point is that it sounds like he never forced himself on her. He never threatened or physically abused her. I don't think 12 honest men or honest women could ever unanimously call this rape.
Yeah, it was a bum deal. Yeah, some folks made mistakes.
But this is not a crime.
These people should consider drinking less.
Both knew they were NOT having sex with their own partners. Even at night; asleep; you'd wake up and know you weren't having sex with your "usual" partner.
Unless, of course, alcohol or drugs or exhaustion were involved.
Why'd I add exhaustion? Two couples. All day traveling, staying up most the night to play the casinos. Two bedroom condo in paralel. Front door, bedroom, bedroom, then bathroom. Couple A took the bedroom closest to the bathroom. Couple B took bedroom farthest away. Wife of couple B around 4:30 am.. staggers to the bathroom. Finishes, climbs into bed. Has funky dreams. Knows something's not right; but so tired.
Dreams keep her from resting. She awakens, looks around the strange room, and realizes she has climbed into bed with Couple A. ACK. No one is awake. She carefully extricates herself from the bed, and returns to her own bed.
But intercourse? Sex? Intimacy involves many very important behaviors, modes, expressions -- it's like DNA, voice patterns, handwriting -- there's a personal "signature" in the intimacy act.
The woman, in the article, had to know she wasn't having sex with her boyfriend.
In the early 90s, and in Australia, was the first known instance of a wife asserting her husband raped her. All the facts showed that this had been a consensual act. And I don't mean by the "marriage" contract. The facts leading up to the "alleged" rape. The woman won. Feminists went to town everywhere about the evils of marriage. It was so gross.
This reminds me of the case where a man met a woman online and they decided their first encounter would take the form of a rape (fantasy). Somehow the man broke into the wrong home and got into deep trouble when he started upon the woman living there before realizing it wasn't his online sweetie.
A Jerry Springer Show !
How can you not know your not having sex with your boyfriend..? People smell, feel and taste different.
Too strange for words really, but I fail to see where a rape occurred.
Used to happen to me all the time. I'd be having sex with Pamela Sue Anderson, Uma Thurman, Jennifer Lopez, the hot babe at the produce stand, the receptionist at work and then I'd open my eyes and there would be my wife. Aayyggghh!!!
(that's evil ain't it)
:~)
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