Businessman Cleared Of Assaulting Drunken Nightclub Woman He Took To His Hotel Room

Ainura Dillon

A Cheshire businessman's late-night encounter with a drunken woman he met at a West end club ended with each accusing the other of wanting paid sex in his hotel room and the police being called.

Company director Paul Craven, 53, of South Downs Road, Hale, Altrincham, claimed Victoria's Secret employee Ainura Dillon, 39, asked for £200-£250 for sex, but she insisted it was he who offered to pay for sexual services.

City of London Magistrates Court heard Mr. Craven was arrested for assaulting the married mother-of-two at Searcys Hotel, Pavilion Road, Knightsbridge on March 7, but they cleared him after a trial.

“This is the fourth time I've flown in from Malaga. I've had to stay in hotels, it's cost me thousands of pounds and I am innocent,” he told the court.

Mrs Dillon admitted drinking beer, wine, cocktails and champagne, including a bottle bought by the defendant, and next remebered being in his hotel room after asking for their taxi to take her home to Wanstead.

“From the beginning he offered money, but I told him: 'No' and that I wanted a taxi. I knew what he wanted obviously. He wanted sex,” she told the court.

“He got angry and threw my bag from the room into the corridor. He pushed me in the back and started pulling down my pants.

“He held me and pushed me onto the carpet and started beating my left side. He was holding me with one hand and with the other was beating my left side without stopping.

“I was thinking I was going to die. I was thinking this man was not going to stop.”

She admitted she was drunk throughout the encounter, but insisted Mr. Craven had produced three £50 or €50 notes in the hotel room.

Mr. Craven's case was that Mrs Dillon approached him in the club and asked for a glass of wine and when they got into a taxi afterwards the driver refused to take her any further.

She then asked for another drink and the defendant invited her into the hotel bar where he was already staying, but because it was closed they decided to order wine and sandwiches via room service.

Mr. Craven insists she asked for payment for sex and at that point he immediately asked her to leave and did not assault her.