A professional poker player, cleared of sexually assaulting a female member of his born-again Christian church congregation, has been sentenced for what he described as “horseplay” and “banter”.
Daniel James Godwin, 31, had visited the petite woman’s flat to assemble a flat-pack wardrobe, but grabbed her as she left the bedroom and then pinned her hands above her head.
The five-foot tall civil servant victim claimed he also stood her on her bed and afterwards Godwin sent her a WhatsApp message, which read: “Sorry about the rapey incident earlier.”
Croydon Crown Court heard he effectively “confessed” to church elders when investigated by the pastor and is now banned from contacting the woman.
Godwin, of Newgate Tower, Newgate, Croydon always fought the charge of sexually assaulting the university graduate on June 16, last year and his trial resulted in a hung jury.
On the eve of the retrial the prosecution dropped the charge and he pleaded guilty to one count of simply assaulting the woman.
Yesterday he was sentenced to eighty hours community service and made subject to a five-year restraining order.
Both attended Redeemer Church, Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon, and the woman admitted there was consensual kissing between the pair.
“He asked me to kiss him and I don’t know why I said it, but I said: ‘You kiss me.’ He kissed me on my lips and picked me up and put me on the bed standing up, which I thought was really weird,” she told the trial.
“I remember him staring at me and he had his hand around my waist. I took his arm off and walked off the bed and thought that was the end of it.
“That’s when he grabbed me and put his arms around me, around my waist from behind and I took his arms off again.
“He came after me in the living room, pinning me against the wall. He held my wrists above my head.”
She added: “I did think if I didn’t say the right thing he was probably going to rape me.”
She told the court Godwin, who quit a degree in Medicine, told her: “Lust came over me,” and advised her in order to avoid similar incidents again she should never be alone with a man.
Godwin had visited her Croydon flat to do some odd jobs and they shared an afternoon bottle of wine.
“I didn’t want him to get angry, it was like his face had changed. I said: ‘We can’t do this now’ and that’s when he let go of me and sighed,” the victim told the trial.
“I think at that point he was kissing my neck. I told him to calm down and he stopped.
“My skin crawled a bit. It was just so gross, the whole thing, it felt disgusting.
“I felt he had violated me in my home and I did not even get the curtain tie backs done.”
When questioned by police Godwin said he stopped when it was obvious the woman did not want to continue kissing.
His lawyer Laura Hocknell said: “Both of them had a bit to drink and setting out his motivations after a couple of glasses of wine is not easy. He defendant says it was ‘horseplay’ or ‘banter.’
“He does not accept there was an intention of sexual motivation behind this. He accepts the contact was unwanted, but not sexually motivated.
Judge Elizabeth Smaller told Godwin: “Clearly at one stage you did have romantic intentions and tried to kiss her. As she tried to get into the sitting room you pinned her against the wall in her own home.
“I suspect you were peeved after the kissing when her intentions changed. This is a serious offence against her when she was alone at home with you.”
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