Richard Wilkins tells Joanne Young trial he believed encounter was role-play
A man accused of raping Joanne Young at her Swindon home has told Winchester Crown Court he believed the encounter was role-play, claiming she was pretending to snore.
How it was covered
- ITV was the only channel found covering it, concentrating on the video evidence and Richard Wilkins's role-play defence.
- Channel 5, BBC News, BBC One, BBC Two, Channel 4, GB News and Sky News: not found in tracked broadcasts.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
Richard Wilkins, one of four men on trial at Winchester Crown Court, has told a jury he believed a sexual encounter with Joanne Young was role-play, ITV reported. He is accused of raping Ms Young while she was barely conscious at her home in Swindon. ITV reported that Mr Wilkins denies the allegations against him.
ITV reported that the jury was shown video evidence that the prosecution says shows Ms Young being raped while she is heard snoring. According to ITV, the footage shows her body motionless as Mr Wilkins climbs over her and performs sexual acts while she is blindfolded and restrained. ITV reported that Joanne Young watched the evidence and spent the day in court.
ITV reported that Mr Wilkins told the jury he thought Ms Young was pretending to snore as part of a role-play scenario. According to ITV, he said he had been invited by Philip Young, identified in the report as Ms Young's husband and ex-husband, who has already pleaded guilty to multiple charges of drugging and sexually abusing his wife over a 13-year period. According to ITV, Mr Wilkins told the court he responded to an online advert written by Philip Young but believed it had been written by the couple.
ITV reported that the prosecution says Philip Young advertised his wife online for men to come and have sex with her. ITV reported that the jury heard that in the marriage Joanne Young would usually go to bed first and was often woken after being blindfolded and shackled to the bed by her ex-husband. ITV reported that she said this was part of their monogamous relationship and that she did not object to it. The prosecution's case, as ITV reported it, is that she was either shackled and blindfolded believing she was having sex with her ex-husband when she was not, or drugged and unconscious while strangers had sex with her.
ITV reported that the prosecution said Mr Wilkins did not ask for her consent because the court heard he did not want to hear the word no. Sangeeta Lal, ITV's Western England reporter, reported from Winchester Crown Court.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| A witness, Richard Wilkins, told the court he believed Joanne Young was pretending to snore as part of role-play. | |
| Philip Young pleaded guilty to multiple charges of drugging and sexually abusing his wife over 13 years. | |
| The jury was shown video evidence that prosecutors said showed Joanne Young being raped while she was heard snoring. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
ITV1's report centred on the video evidence the jury was shown and Richard Wilkins's claim that Joanne Young was role-playing. It set out the prosecution's account of Philip Young advertising his wife online and the defence claim that Wilkins believed he had been invited by the couple. The tone was sombre, with correspondent Sangeeta Lal noting the distressing details.
- “The jury was shown video evidence that the prosecution claim is of Joanne Young being raped while she's heard snoring.”
- “he told the jury he believed she was pretending to snore as part of a role-play scenario”
- “the prosecution said that he didn't ask for her consent because the court heard he didn't want to hear the word no”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.