A married man described his feeling of panic when he woke-up in a stranger’s house dozens of miles from home.
Prosecutors say the man, who gave evidence to Oxford Crown Court yesterday and is one of two alleged victims, was drugged, kidnapped, taken to the Cotswolds, stripped and raped by Wandsworth man Luiz da Silva Neto in the early hours of December 10 last year. The 35-year-old denies the allegations.
The alleged victim had been out drinking with work colleagues the night before, enjoying several pints at the pub and wine with dinner before moving on to Raffles nightclub in Chelsea’s Kings Road, where the group had booked a VIP table that had a minimum spend of £900.
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His last memory from the club was feeling ‘strange’ and ‘kind of wavy and as if your lips are not working’ as he spoke to the doorman.
He told police officers in a taped interview played to the jury that he had a ‘tunnel vision’-like memory in which a cup was held to his lips as he lay on his side.
The man, who is married and lives in London, woke the next morning to find he was naked in an unknown room and a tanned man with a ‘European’ accent was telling him a taxi was on its way.
He told detectives: “I just need to get out of here as soon as I can - that’s all that I thought at the time.
“I did not recognise the person and just wanted to get out as soon as I could without appearing panicked.”
The alleged victim said he felt an ‘overwhelming sense of panic and confusion’. He looked at the Google Maps app on his phone, ‘zooming out and zooming out and zooming out and seeing I was in Oxfordshire and then I’ve started to get even more panicked because I thought I’m miles from home’. He was in a cottage in Middle Barton, west Oxfordshire.
During interviews with detectives, Da Silva Neto claimed all sexual interactions between him and the two men were consensual, the court heard.
Giving evidence from behind a curtain, the alleged victim told the court he did not recall meeting the defendant at a cashpoint or booking or cancelling a taxi on the night in question.
Defence lawyer Merry van Woodenberg suggested that in the early hours of the morning he had been in a flat in Bayswater, west London, with a woman and the defendant. There was also a journey to Oxfordshire in which the married man had been ‘sexually suggestive’ towards a woman called Melissa, it was alleged.He said he had no memory of Melissa but did recall being given something to drink when he was at the house in Oxfordshire.
READ MORE: First 'victim' gives evidence to jury
Ms van Woodenberg told him: “It would be strange that you cannot remember any of your other movements on that night but you can remember that moment. I suggest it was not a true memory.” He maintained that it was.
Da Silva Neto, of Riverlight Quay, Wandsworth, denies administering a substance with intent and engaging in penetrative sexual activity without consent with two men. He is accused of the rape and kidnap of the second man against whom the defendant is accused of committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence. The trial continues.
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