Thursday, 3 August 2023

Boot Camp Fitness Instructor Accused Of Internet Date Rape

A military-style boot camp fitness instructor repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted a younger schoolteacher on their first internet date, a court heard.

Former British Army Airborne Gunner Christopher Millington-Lee, 44, flattered the woman by extending their Bumble introduction by twenty-four hours and allowing their online relationship to develop.


“There was full-on kinky texting for two weeks,” she told the Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court jury, where British Military Fitness instructor Millington-Lee denies the charges.


“I wouldn’t normally go out with someone that old. He was a bit out of my age range, but I thought I would give him a chance,” the woman said from behind a screen.


“He came across as ex-military in the way he held himself and the way he walked and he had quite a posh accent.”


However, she said the date with Millington-Lee, whose full-time career is online business marketing, ended with him smothering her with a pillow and making death threats as he raped her.


Millington-Lee consumed alcohol during their pub date, but the schoolteacher kept to soft drinks and agreed to return to his Wyvil Road, Vauxhall flat because of difficulties getting a train home.


“It had been a good date and he said he wanted a kiss and cuddle and I was up for that,” said the woman. “However, I wouldn’t have gone back to his flat if he had not already agreed we were not going to have sex.”


She told the trial she consented to kissing Millington-Lee while both were naked on his bed, but not to intercourse.


“It really shocked me and I was thinking: ‘This is weird.’ It took a split second for me to realise, I didn’t expect it.


“I did not find that a natural progression because it happened so fast. I didn’t say ‘stop’. I was shocked and that’s where the fear came from.


“I remember thinking: ‘Do I push this guy off, who I don’t know in an area of London I don’t know or get onboard with it?’ With a military-trained person in his flat in Vauxhall.


“I thought it would be easier to be onboard with it. That was quite a quick decision.”


The woman explained she was shocked at how the kissing and cuddling developed, but once it did felt powerless to stop the physically-stronger Millington-Lee.


“I did not want to have sex that night, but as it seemed it wasn’t going to be very bad I wasn’t going to push a muscular man, who had been drinking, off me.


“A man who could have got angry that I accused him.”


She insisted the consensual petting was not an indication she wanted physical intimacy to progress. “Having a kiss and cuddle in bed was agreed in the pub, those parameters had not changed.


“I thought it would be over soon so I could handle it, but he enjoyed kinky violence and if I pushed him off how would he react?


“I would like to point out he hit me by this point. He hit the back of my legs and pulled my hair.


“It was very intense sex with a touch of violence to it.”


Following the date on June 2, last year the woman confided the events to family and eventually reported Millington-Lee to the police eight months later.


In her recorded police interview, which was played in court she added: “He would put my hands on him, put his hands on my breasts, it was heavy-petting behaviour and it would build up to sex again.


“He slapped my inner thigh and across my breasts. It wasn’t that hard, but it felt it could build-up and I was scared of that.


“When he was on top of me he said he was going to kill me and had his hand over my nose and mouth.”


She also said Millington-Lee twice smothered her with a pillow.


“Once it got violent I felt I had to get through it until the morning. I was very mission-based and focused on my end goal.”


The woman told the police Millington-Lee also showed her explicit pornography on his phone and made further threats.


“He said: ‘I could kill you. Nobody would come looking for you. Your mother and sister would be happy.’


“I left at around 7.00am in the morning and he walked me to the train station.”


She did not want to go to hospital the next day. “I did not want it to become dramatic and a big deal.


“Chris also told me he used to be a policeman so I wanted to stay as far away from that as possible.


“In the days after everything was my fault and I believed if I reported it the day it happened I wouldn’t be allowed to work with children again.”


Millington-Lee has pleaded not guilty to six counts of rape; one attempted rape; sexual assault; attempted sexual assault; two counts of sexual activity and causing actual bodily harm.


Trial continues…………..

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