Davina Ayrton: Transgender woman accused of raping teenage girl before transitioning

The alleged victim said the defendant acted ‘as if it was nothing’

Kate Ng
Tuesday 05 January 2016 15:51 GMT
The case was heard in Portsmouth Crown Court
The case was heard in Portsmouth Crown Court

A transgender woman has gone on trial after being accused of raping a teenage girl before she transitioned.

Davina Ayrton, 34, is accused of raping a then-15-year-old girl in Portsmouth in 2004, when she was living as a man called David, reports Portsmouth News.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard the alleged victim say in a police interview she was pinned down on a sofa during the alleged attack, and she "couldn’t breathe" when Ayrton kissed her.

The victim, now in her 20s, said she wasn't able to move her arms as one was against the back of the sofa, and the other was being held by Ayrton.

In the interview, which was played to the court, she said the alleged attack "must have been seconds but it felt like it was minutes".

She said: "He just sat up was if it was nothing. I’m sure there was a point I went to slap him but I couldn’t move my arm.

The alleged victim told police she told Ayrton to get off her three or four times, because "it was more his weight on me at that point".

“That’s when he was kissing my face, slobbering on my face. I couldn’t breathe,” she continued.

She alleges Ayrton then sat down before picking something up off the floor, and left. The court was told both had been drinking.

The woman said she did not want to move after the alleged rape happened, and only told a few people about it.

Police received a report of the alleged rape around the time it happened, but the teenager declined to make a statement.

Prosecutor Chris Stopa said Ayrton allegedly admitted raping someone in the past to a worker in her care home in 2014.

According to Mr Stopa, the police were called in after she said "she had done something that she shouldn’t have done, that she raped somebody".

Judge Ian Pearson told the jury the defendant has learning difficulties. Ayrton, who denies the rape charge between October and November 2004, sat with a support worker during the opening of the trial.

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