Durham University student, 22, ‘acted out rape fantasy dreamt up while training to be a counsellor when he attacked drunken woman after boozy party’
Alistair Cooke, 22, 'followed his fellow undergraduate home from the house party where she had drunk so much rum punch and gin and tonic that she could hardly walk or talk'
A STUDENT acted out a rape fantasy dreamt up while training to be a counsellor when he attacked a woman after a boozy party, a court heard yesterday.
Alistair Cooke, 22, followed his fellow undergraduate home from the house party where she had drunk so much rum punch and gin and tonic that she could hardly walk or talk.
He let himself into her house and raped her three times, it was said.
He later texted her and confessed that the sex they had had was ";shady and more in the grey" and he felt "a bit sick".
The scenario was identical to one he used during an earlier role playing session while training to be a student counsellor for Durham University's Nightline service, the jury heard.
Students pretended to be victims of sexual assaults but Cooke acted out the role of an attacker, it was said.
Another student told Durham crown court: "Instead of pretending he had been raped he would talk about how he had followed somebody home, that they had sex and that she woke up in the morning and was weird, that her mates were angry at him and now he was feeling a bit sick."
On June 1 last year the alleged victim invited Cooke, a third year Geography student, to a party saying she "felt sorry for him as he seemed to be depressed."
The 23-year-old woman, also a Durham student, later told how she had become "very very very drunk" on rum punch and gin and tonic.
She left the party unable to speak coherently and went to her shared house nearby, but Cooke followed her and let himself in, finding her sleeping on a sofa.
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The court heard he moved her to her bedroom, asked her to repeat his name to check she was awake enough to have sex and then put on a condom before raping her three times.
Prosecutor Shaun Dodds said: "She later recalled being in her bedroom and not knowing how she got there.
"She recalled being completely naked in bed and the defendant being in the room.
"The woman told police she recalled the defendant putting on a condom and moving her round into different positions to have sex, some of which were painful."
The next morning when she woke, she was “confused and surprised”, to find Cooke in her room.
Mr Dodds added: "She said that whatever happened in that room, it was without her consent.”
Over the next few days Cooke and the woman swapped a number of texts when she quizzed him over what had taken place.
She texted: "You hurt me." Cooke replied: "I am really worried about you, please can you tell me what is going through your mind, I've never wanted to hurt you and I feel awful that is how you feel."
The woman continued: "Why did you ask me who you were?"
His reply said: "Because I wasn't sure how awake you were."
Woman: "And you don't think there is anything wrong with any of that?"
Cooke: "That night I definitely wasn't in a clear state of mind but I never felt like I got any signals for (sic) you that it was wrong. Now I feel it was shady and more in the grey and that makes me worried and a bit sick."
Woman: "So you let yourself into my house when everyone was asleep, checked I was awake enough to say who you were (after coaxing) and then moved me to my bed to have sex. And now you're starting to feel it was a bit shady?"
Cooke: "I'm with friends and have had some drink I will give you a proper reply when I am sober." Woman: "Maybe you should stop drinking."
The court was told that at the party "extremely tall" Cooke took selfies of himself with the girl, leaning in to make the picture appear intimate.
Cooke, of Perranarworthal, Cornwall, denies rape.
The trial continues.
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