Former Shropshire student who forced himself on woman jailed
A man who raped a woman when he was a student at a Shropshire university has been jailed for four years.
Phillip Carlisle, 21, was found guilty of raping a woman when he was studying at Harper Adams University, near Newport, in November 2013.
Carlisle was sentenced to spend four years and six months in custody following a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.
He was convicted of one charge of rape by a majority verdict following more than five hours of deliberations. During the trial the jury heard how Carlisle, of Finghall in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, spent the evening drinking after playing rugby for the university team.
They were told that by 2am the next day he had drunk three quarters of a bottle of red wine, six pints of bitter and some Jaeger Bombs.
The victim was also out drinking that night with friends and had started chatting to Carlisle in a bar.
Peter Arnold, prosecuting, said the two met in a bar, kissed, and at the end of the night the woman, who had also had a lot to drink, wanted to find a taxi home.
Mr Arnold told the jury Carlisle said he would walk her to find a taxi but instead walked her to his home near to the university.
The prosecutor described how witnesses on the night in question claimed to see him "pulling her along like a parent would pull a toddler". Once inside Carlisle's house near the university, Mr Arnold said the pair went to his room where he "forced himself" on her.
The court was told that they were interrupted and she managed to get away from him and left the house. She then rang a friend in tears.
Carlisle maintained that the two had sex on the night in question but that it had been consensual.
He said he remembered an argument and telling the woman to get out of the house.
