A man accused of raping a teenager was freed yesterday after a jury decided he was asleep at the time of the alleged offence. Stephen Lee Davies, 43, claimed he suffered from sexsomnia — the ability to have intercourse while asleep — and had no recollection of the encounter with the 16-year-old student.
The girl had been staying at Mr Davies’s home in Swansea when she became ill and was told to share his bed because his room was cooler.
She said she awoke in the night to find him having intercourse with her.
Mr Davies, a painter and decorator who represents Wales at sea angling, claimed he only realised something was wrong when he sent the teenager a text message the next day and she replied: “Go to hell, you dirty b------.”
During his trial at Swansea Crown Court, Mr Davies’s former wife, Angela, told the jury that he would often become aroused in the middle of the night.
“He was never violent and never forced me to have sex against my will. Sometimes his eyes were open but there was no one at home,” she said. She added: “It became a bit of a joke. I would say I must be pretty rubbish because he could not remember. Even if his eyes were open he would not remember.”
Another former partner said she could have entire conversations with him, as well as full sexual intercourse, without him waking up.
Dr Chris Idzikowski, the director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre and founder of the British Sleep Society, told the court that Mr Davies showed all the signs of suffering from sexsomnia.
“It affects mainly men who are deep sleepers. It can involve almost any sort of sexual activity and could go on for 20 or 30 minutes,” he said.
Judge Paul Thomas thanked the jury for dealing with “a particularly difficult case”.
Source: Telegraph
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