The son of a prominent British barrister told a jury he was ‘confused’ when a university student initiated sex, then accused him of rape.
George Fay said he clambered into a bunk bed next to the sleeping 20-year-old woman and her boyfriend because ‘I was tired, a bit high, it was three in the morning and I wanted to go to sleep’.
The woman claims she woke up to discover him having sex with her. But Fay told the New York jury she initiated the encounter.
George Fay (right) and his father Attorney Michael Fay (left) in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, January 22, 2018, as a photographer takes their picture
The son of a prominent British barrister (centre, red tie) told a jury he was ‘confused’ when a university student initiated sex, then accused him of rape. George Fay (centre in dark jacket) said he clambered into a bunk bed next to the sleeping 20-year-old woman and her boyfriend because ‘I was tired, a bit high, it was three in the morning and I wanted to go to sleep’
‘She pulled my arm over to her,’ Fay, 23, said. ‘I leaned over and kissed her right shoulder.
‘She looked at me and we started kissing each other. We started making out a bit, started touching each other.
‘I unhooked her bra. She laughed as I did that. We continued kissing each other.’
Fay, whose QC father Michael sits as a deputy high court judge on British Caribbean islands, then graphically described having sex with the woman, saying at one stage he had even got out of bed to get a tube of lubricant from the bathroom.
He claimed his childhood friend Jack Slye, who was asleep next to them, stirred and the woman moved his arm out of the way.
It was then, he said, that her mood changed.
‘She goes from kissing me, moaning and touching me. She just stopped. She just kind of changed and said I should go,’ said Fay, who was staying with family friends on Manhattan’s Upper Eastside while he did a summer internship with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Giving evidence on the sixth day of his rape trial Fay, wearing a charcoal grey suit, pale blue shirt and patterned tie, said he didn’t understand what was happening so he went into the sitting room.
Fay, whose QC father Michael sits as a deputy high court judge on British Caribbean islands, then graphically described having sex with the woman, saying at one stage he had even got out of bed to get a tube of lubricant from the bathroom
‘I heard crying from the bedroom,’ he said. ‘I thought it was Jack, he had woken up and knew (the victim) and I had sex.
The university drop out, who was educated at expensive American boarding schools, said he went back into the bedroom, where the woman was in tears.
‘I was confused, I didn’t know what was going on. Jack just woke up, he was standing between me and (her). She was crying.
‘It looked like I had done something to upset her and I was, ‘I didn’t upset her.’
‘I was very freaked out, I didn’t know what was going on.’
When the woman left, Fay said she started screaming at him, yelling: ‘You’re disgusting,’ and calling him names.
London-born Fay was arrested minutes later and in a low voice told the jury how being locked in a cell with four other men was ‘one of the most scariest moments of my life’.
Fay has pleaded not guilty to three charges of rape, sex abuse and committing a criminal sexual act while the woman was ‘physically incapable’ of giving consent.
In his first hour on the witness stand, Fay said he had been briefly introduced to the woman at a night club earlier in the evening.
That contradicts the woman who said she had never seen him before she woke up to find him on top of her.
Fay, who spent the night drinking gin, tequila and beer, then smoked marijuana, said he loaned the woman and her boyfriend his door keys so they could go back to his apartment for sex.
He admitted he was ‘mildly annoyed’ when he returned to the flat and discovered the two asleep in his bed.
Fay also told the eight-man, four-woman jury that he had returned to Britain after his arrest on the advice of his immigration attorney because his student visa had expired.
Fay, walking behind his father, also told the eight-man, four-woman jury that he had returned to Britain after his arrest on the advice of his immigration attorney because his student visa had expired
He said he had spent seven months staying with his grandparents in the UK, then with family friends, before going to his family’s estate on the British Virgin islands last October to help clear up the damage from Hurricane Irma.
His father’s law practice is based on the main island of Tortola but he remains an honorary member of London’s Radcliffe Chambers. His mother Sofia is a partner in a ritzy public relations company in the Caribbean.
The wealthy couple, who also have homes on Jersey in the Channel Islands and in Massachusetts, have attended court every day with their eldest son.
When the court broke for lunch in the middle of Fay’s evidence, his father gave him a large bear hug as he left the witness stand.
The trial is expected to conclude later this week.