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| Behind Bars: Harrison |
A Wimbledon tennis tournament players’ bodyguard has been jailed for molesting and trying to rape a female colleague after the pair enjoyed drink and cocaine into the early hours.
Phillip Harrison, 33, stripped and climbed into the sleeping woman’s bed, groped her between the legs and climbed on top of her despite her continued objections.
At Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court the former Royal Engineers Lance Corporal received eight years imprisonment.
Father-of-one Harrison, of Littlewood Close, Browney, Durham fought the charges, but was unanimously found guilty of attempted rape, plus a count of assault by penetration.
Security Industry Authority (SIA)-registered close protection operative Harrison described himself to the jury as: “High, horny and arrogant,” the night he bombarded the victim with flirtatious texts.
They were both housed at the University of Roehampton student halls of residence, where on June 30, last year they consumed drink and drugs into the early hours.
“You lied and deceived reception staff to give you a keycard to access her room,” Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC told him. “You undressed and got into her bed and touched her intimately.
“She said ‘no’ repeatedly and asked you to leave. You repeatedly put your hand between her legs and ignored her wishes and continued to touch her.
“She rolled over to protect her body and you sat on top of her and she kept her legs shut and squirmed to stop you.”
Harrison left her room at 11.40am and sent a series of texts, begging the victim not to report him, suggesting her cocaine use would be exposed and destroy her career.
“You gaslit her and falsely claimed you would all lose your jobs and you falsely claimed she was being extremely flirtatious and enticed you to her room.
“You have lied and tried to blame the victim and this incident has had a significant impact on her confidence in personal and professional life.
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| Looking At Serving A Long Stretch: Harrison |
“You used every manipulative means, including threats, to prevent her reporting the offence.
“You intended to commit rape and very nearly succeeded and the trigger was your sense of sexual entitlement.
“She was not sexually interested in you and made that clear,” the judge told Harrison. “However, you would not take no for an answer.”
Harrison sent a total of sixteen texts before returning to the victim’s room, after writing: ‘I’m coming for a cuddle.’
“Afterwards you tried to pass it off as over-enthusiasm.”
Harrison begged the victim: ‘I beg that it stays between us.’ ‘Please don’t do this to me. I will lose everything.’ ‘I have a small daughter. You hold my life in your hands.’
Earlier that evening Harrison paid £100 for cocaine outside The Angel pub, where many of the close protection officers, including the victim, were drinking, following Wimbledon’s qualifying tournament.
They returned to her room with another male colleague, where the woman twice rebuffed Harrison’s advances when he tried to kiss her.
After leaving her room Harrison bombarded her with flirtatious texts, which she ignored and the woman went to sleep.
“I woke up to Phil in my bedroom. He was in bed with me naked,” she told the police in a video-recorded interview.
“I said: ‘What the f*** are you doing in my bedroom?’ and the next thing he was beside me.
“He just kind of laughed it off a little bit. He undressed and climbed into bed with me.
“He was kissing my back, neck and ears and was putting his hand on my breast and between my legs a few times and he kept trying to put his hand between my legs.
“He tried to push hard further between my legs around five times and was saying he was really horny.
“I told him to leave and he said I was moody. I rolled over onto my stomach so the mattress was protecting most of the parts of my body and he sat on top of me.”
Earlier Harrison had texted: ‘Filth don’t come into it.’ ‘Let me tease and please you like never before’ and ‘Give into temptation.’
He also tried to tempt her with more cocaine and also texted: ‘I’m coming for a cuddle. LMAO.’
After trying to rape her Harrison wrote: ‘FFS I can’t believe I came into your room. Obviously out of control,’ ‘OMFG what a mess I was in’ and ‘I’m sorry if I was OTT.’
Yesterday, prosecutor Bartholomew O’Toole told the court: “There was encouragement of the use of drugs and planning, with multiple texts in the hours before.
“The emotional pressure and threats regarding her career are also aggravating circumstances.”
In one text Harrison wrote to the victim: “We’ll all get the boot for being high and be blacklisted in the industry.”
In her victim impact statement the woman said: “I felt during the trial that I was being attacked by the female defence barrister.
“What Phil did made me question my life in many ways. I always thought I was a strong and independent woman in a male-dominated industry, but now question myself.
“If I cannot look after myself then I am kidding myself that I can look after others.
“I was working at Wimbledon, a role I really enjoyed, but now feel I cannot go back there ever again.
“I’ve been getting flashbacks when I go to bed and go to sleep and feel Phil is in my room and is going to attack me again.
“Nothing could prepare me for what I had to endure in court. The cross-examination scarred me as much as the incident.
“I feel so much safer knowing now he is in prison and I will not be assigned another job with him.
“I am grateful he will not be able to do this to anyone else. He violated me and lied about it.”
Lucy Organ, defending, submitted: “Both of them were using drugs and alcohol, but it was not to facilitate the offence.
“It is not accepted there were threats or blackmail regarding reporting the offence.
“Mr Harrison has not worked since his arrest and has lost his career as a result of this conviction.”
Harrison was arrested at a hotel three weeks after the offences and remained on bail until the jury unanimously convicted him after a seven-day trial.
He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.
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