The US woman “was left bleeding after being raped by the husband of British tennis ace Anne Keothavong’s lawyer after he played Welcome To The Jungle at his home in Kensington”.
- Andrew Bretherton, 49, was on trial today for raping a woman in 2008
- Bretherton later married former British tennis star Anne Keothavong in 2015
- The applicant told the court today that she was left bleeding and feared suffocation
- Bretherton denies two counts of rape as trial continues in London
An American woman has told how she was bleeding after being brutally raped by the husband of a former British tennis star
The woman, whose name cannot be released, said she feared corporate lawyer Andrew Bretherton would “suffocate” her in the bedroom of his “small apartment in a big building” after smashing her face into the pillow with his “semi-professional tennis elbow.” had pressed’.
In an interview recorded at Kensington Police Station in 2018, the woman revealed how she had told Bretherton to “slow down” as he constantly “shoved his hands down my pants” and was “stroking my breasts”.
But in the hour-long recording played to a jury at Inner London Crown Court today, the woman told how she was forced “to let him do what he did” after the young barrister relaxed his grip and she “a little bit could gasp for air”. out of air’.
Andrew Bretherton, 49, is on trial at Inner London Crown Court on charges of raping a woman in 2008
Anne Keothavong and partner Andrew Bretherton arrive for the 2019 Champions’ Dinner at the Guildhall in the City of London
They heard how Bretherton – who denies two counts of rape – allegedly played the Guns ‘n Roses song ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ at his home in Kensington before he ‘aspired to murder’ and raped the ‘unworldly’ college graduate.
The Anglo-American said of the alleged 2008 attack: “He hit me hard on my butt and after that I had no control.
“My best option was to let him do what he did so I could breathe.”
The woman told how the rape only ended after she was “crumpled into a ball” and took the form of an “inch worm.”
Bretherton, who qualified at elite law firm Slaughter and May, met the woman through a mutual friend in the summer of 2007. Pictured with his wife
His alleged victim felt she was “suffocated” when she was attacked, Inner London Crown Court heard. File image
She said, “He grabbed my chest and I constricted myself into a ball, an inchworm.”
The woman told how she ran into the bathroom and locked the door.
She said: “My trousers were around my ankles. It was a lot of blood.
“I got organized and knew I had to take a break for that.
“He lay in bed with his arms crossed across his chest, looking stunned and calculated.
‘I said to him; “That’s not what you do, that’s not what you do”.
‘I shot past him and went outside.
The woman told how the doorman at the Kensington apartment could see that she was distraught.
She told police: “I said something like; “Call the police, handcuff him.”
“I went out onto the street and took a cab home.”
The American told police she wanted to find a good partner and boyfriend and stay in the UK.
She said she willingly went to Bretherton’s apartment, thinking she might “wake up to a new friend”.
But she hadn’t expected to be smothered and raped.
Corporate lawyer Andrew Bretherton married former British tennis number one Anne Keothavong in 2015.
He denies all allegations.