Rape accused ‘turned down girl’s advances’

Taking the stand in his own defence, Michael Mayhew said it was the 17-year-old who propositioned him, but he refused.

The former yacht club committee member is accused of raping her in the downstairs toilet of his home following a meal at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club last August.

The IT project manager told Winchester Crown Court that the teenager and two of her friends had invited themselves back to his house for drinks at around 11.30pm.

Giving evidence from the witness box on the third day of his trial, Mayhew, 48, repeatedly denied ever attacking or raping the girl.

He said the teenager had followed him to the downstairs toilet and smacked him on the backside while he was changing his cat’s litter tray.

He said: “I turned around and saw her leaning towards me with her hands on her private parts. She had pulled up her skirt.

“The moment I realised what she was doing I looked away, because this was something outrageous and shocking.

“She started to pull my hand down.

“I said ‘no chance’ and ‘stop being so silly’.We struggled for a few minutes and I think she realised she was never going to win a contest of strength and she stopped, turned around and walked out.”

Mayhew was arrested the following morning after the girl told police that she had been raped.

The court also heard that DNA found on Mayhew’s genitals, boxer shorts and hands matched that of the teenage girl.

Dr Julian Isaac, a senior forensic scientist, said that the DNA could have got there as a result of a rape.

But he said there was equal probability it could have got there by the account given by Mayhew.

Dr Isaac said: “My view is neutral. The scientific findings don’t allow me to differentiate between the two accounts.”

At the end of his evidence Mayhew described the time since the allegation was made as “the worst 18 months of my life”.

Mayhew, of Princess Royal Close, Lymington, denies one charge of rape.

Proceeding