The British rapper Slowthai and a friend raped two women after one of his gigs, the prosecution has told a court.
Slowthai, AKA Tyron Frampton, 29, is accused of raping the women after his gig at the Bullingdon in Oxford in September 2021.
He and Alex Blake-Walker deny three joint counts of rape and one of sexual assault and said the women consented to all sexual activity.
Heather Stangoe, representing the prosecution, said that Frampton and Blake-Walker met a group of women before the show and gave some of them VIP tickets for the concert, after which the women met the rapper on his bus.
Stangoe said that the women brought the group back to one of their homes, where Frampton stipulated two rules: “No phones and no boys.” This suggested the pair’s “mindset from the outset”, she said.
At the property, the women were “isolated from their friends”, according to Stangoe, who said Frampton and Blake-Walker’s “sole purpose for going to that house was to secure sexual gratification. It mattered not to them if the women consented or not.”
She said the men raped and sexually assaulted the women while “joking” and said they “high-fived, discussed ‘tag teams’ and contemplated swapping the girls”. She said when the women’s friends realised what was happening and told the men to stop, Frampton jumped from a balcony-style roof and ran away.
The prosecution said that one of the women, the second complainant, had “been drinking for many hours” before the alleged events and had also taken ketamine and cocaine that night, but that her state did not mean that she was incapable of consenting.
The two women reported the incident to the police that night, said Stangoe, and Frampton and Blake-Walker were arrested and interviewed, and denied the charges.
Frampton’s defence, Patrick Gibbs, said that the post-gig meeting with fans was normal. He asked the jury to keep an open mind and said: “What is in dispute is whether the women consented”, and highlighted “the difference between willingly consenting to something that is thrilling and exciting in the moment to then regretting it afterwards”.
He said that the “effect of celebrity” may have led people to “enthusiastically do things they wouldn’t otherwise do”.
Frampton appeared at Oxford Crown Court with his wife, the pop star Anne-Marie; they married in secret in July 2022.
Defending Blake-Walker, Sheryl Nwosu said he denied the charges and that “all sexual contact and acts were consensual”.
The allegations originally came to light in May 2023, when Frampton appeared before Oxfordshire magistrates court via video link on two charges of rape. He was subsequently removed from the bills of Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds festivals.
Slowthai has released two albums, Nothing Great About Britain in 2019, and Tyron, which reached No 1 in the UK, in 2021.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
Source: theguardian.com
