Air Hostess Says BBQ Host Raped Her On Sofa

Court Date: Nico Van Der Linde

An exhausted and tipsy air hostess woke up in the early hours to discover her BBQ host had stripped her of her clothes and was having sex with her, a court heard.

Plumbing and heating engineer Nico Van Der Linde, 42, claims the pair had consensual sex after drinking red wine all night as his common-law wife slept nearby.

“I woke up and he had my shoes off, pants off, underwear off, my legs open and was moving back and forth,” the 36 year-old Emirates employee told the jury.

“I shouted: ‘What the f***, what the f***’ quite loud and his eyes went big. He couldn’t believe it,” she told Harrow Crown Court.

Van Der Linde, of Roxeth Green Avenue, South Harrow has pleaded not guilty to one count of raping the woman at his address on October 15, 2016.

“I saw my underwear, shoes, everything scattered around the lounge floor and got dressed in the bathroom and ran out the door and was crying hysterically all the way.

“I got on the bus crying hysterically and people were staring at me. My brain couldn’t understand what just happened.”

She estimated drinking 5-6 glasses of wine that night and had to stop Van Der Linde repeatedly topping up her glass.

“I even called him a gentleman,” she recalled. “We all had a fair amount to drink and Nico took off my shoes and put my legs on the sofa to make me more comfortable.”

Earlier prosecutor Mr. Steven Talbot Hadley told the jury there had been an incident in 2014 when the woman slept over at Van Der Linde’s flat.

“Both had consumed alcohol and the complainant was sleeping on the sofa when she awoke with this defendant behind her in the ‘spoon’ position and she remonstrated with him.”

Nico Van Der Linde

Three months later the woman told Van Der Linde’s partner and the defendant confessed, saying he often felt “cuddly” after a few drinks.

Despite this the woman was invited to sleepover again. 

“When she woke up the defendant had slipped off her jeans and pants and pulled down his own underwear below his knees and was thrusting,” said Mr. Talbot Hadley.

Van Der Linde was questioned by police on October 26. “He said she complained of sore feet and he began massaging her feet and she liked this and he began rubbing her leg.

“He found himself pulling off her jeans and she assisted in this and removed her underwear and all this was completely with consent.

“He said when sex concluded she got really funny with him and stormed off and left the premises.”

Police seized his phone and found one message Van Der Linde sent to a friend afterwards, which read: “You got a good lawyer to represent me on rape charges?”

Trial continues…………..