An American woman who says she was raped by the husband of former British tennis number one Anne Keothavong was accused of ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’, a court heard today.
The alleged victim claims that corporate lawyer Andrew Bretherton pinned her face down on his bed and suffocated her until she feared she was going to die during a terrifying sexual attack following a date in May 2008.
But under cross examination today, defence counsel Sarah Forshaw KC, accused her of retelling her version rather than answering a direct question, exclaiming ‘I give up’.
In her police statement the alleged victim claimed she was hugely distressed after fleeing Andrew Bretherton’s flat in Kensington, and told the concierge that he should call the police or put him in handcuffs.
Andrew Bretherton, 49, is on trial at Inner London Crown Court accused of raping a woman in 2008
Anne Keothavong and partner Andrew Bretherton arrive at the Champions’ Dinner at the Guildhall in The City of London in 2019
Mrs Forshaw, KC, recounted the evidence given to the police, which said: ‘The concierge he saw me, he knew I was in distress, he said something to me like ‘What should I do?’
‘I said something like ‘Call the police, or put him in handcuffs.’
Mrs Forshaw then asked her: ‘Do you know if he did call the police? Have the police told you about the evidence from the doorman, or not?’
The woman said: ‘I said something’ to the doorman.
Mrs Forshaw, KC, responded: ‘At the point where you left the flat, you weren’t very distressed were you?
‘I’m just going to suggest to you that as time went on you made a mountain out of a molehill.’
In response the alleged victim repeated the evidence already given, telling the court of the ‘brutal rape’ she reportedly experienced.
(File Photo) The alleged victim was accused of ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’ by prosecutors
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Bretherton, who qualified at elite law firm Slaughter and May, met the woman through a mutual friend in the summer of 2007. Pictured with his wife
Frustrated by the woman’s response, Mrs Forshaw said: ‘You are not entitled to come here and say what you want, you answer the question.’
The court also heard there were substantial inconsistencies in the victim’s evidence – she told officers she had ‘some tears in my anus and some bruises.’
However, medical reports revealed the alleged victim had one half centimetre fissure on the outside of her anus, and one bruise on her thigh.
Yesterday, a court heard Bretherton invited the alleged victim into his flat where he later pinned her face down on his bed, suffocating her until she thought she was going to die.
The woman said, had she not managed to shift herself into a position where she could take in some air she would have died.
She said had she not managed to shift herself into a position where she could take in some air she would have died.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said after he raped her anally and vaginally she eventually managed to wrestle herself free and flee to the bathroom in the ‘sterily empty’ Kensington flat.
On the night of the alleged rape the alleged victim and corporate lawyer Bretherton had been on their fourth date, visiting a gastro-pub before Bretherton took her past his flat and invited her in.
Inside, she said Bretherton ‘started to get more assertive’ and ‘very handsy’, trying to touch her breasts and placing his hands down her trousers, before getting up to put on Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle then assaulting her.
The court has been told that she brought the claim after reading about Harvey Weinstein 10 years after her alleged ordeal.
Corporate lawyer Bretherton, who married Ms Keothavong in February 2015, denies two counts of rape.
She is scheduled to give her husband a character reference at the trial held at Inner London Crown Court.
The trial continues.
