Man denies rape of woman he met on dating app in Telford hotel
A man raped a woman he had met on an internet dating app in a Telford hotel room, a court heard.
Graham Jones travelled over from Shrewsbury on the train to meet the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, after they hit it off while speaking on the Plenty of Fish site.
A jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court heard the pair went for a few drinks at a town pub before agreeing to get a hotel room – and were having consensual sex until Jones started to behave "very oddly".
Jones, 25, of Featherbed Lane, Shrewsbury, denies raping the woman on October 2 last year. Mr Steven Thomas, prosecuting, said there was initially a "chance meeting" between the two when Jones went into her place of work to buy something.
"They were not to know it at the time, but they were both members of a dating app called Plenty of Fish," the prosecutor said.
"They recognised each other and that led to them starting to communicate with each other.
"The communication obviously went well, and as a result they agreed to meet.
"She met him at the train station and they walked to Wetherspoons, had a few drinks there, things were obviously going well. A suggestion was made to purchase a room at the Premier Inn in Telford.
"She was agreeable to that suggestion."
Mr Thomas said the pair had differing accounts for what had happened after they got to the room.
"The gist of it is that in the course of consensual sexual intercourse between the two, the defendant began to behave very oddly," he told the jury.
"He began to insult and threaten the complainant, so much so she became frightened about how he was behaving, remembering this was the first time she had ever met him.
"She asked him to stop, told him to stop, but he wouldn't.
"Eventually intercourse stopped, he went to the bathroom and she managed to get out of the hotel room.
"It's not one of those cases where he has forced himself on her right from the outset.
"But there comes a time when his behaviour causes her to tell him to stop.
"Any woman, or indeed any person, has the right at any time to withdraw their consent for what is happening. This is rape."
Mr Thomas said police were called and Jones was arrested at the hotel.
The trial continues.
