Samuel Armstrong, 24, pictured outside court, was said to have attacked the young woman when she fell asleep after a night of drinking in the Houses of Parliament
A Tory MP’s chief of staff, who is accused of raping a woman, has been cleared of raping a woman in his boss’s Westminster office.
Samuel Armstrong, 24, was accused of abusing his position to attack the young woman when she fell asleep after a night drinking in the Houses of Parliament.
The woman, in her 20s, said she felt ‘like a hostage’ as South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay’s employee raped her twice, telling her: ‘This is what you want.’
But, giving evidence this week, Armstrong told how the pair ended up alone in Mr Mackinlay’s office in the early hours of the morning and were joking around before having sex.
Today at Southwark Crown Court, he was cleared of raping the woman.
He said the complainant asked him to play jazz music and sat with him on a sofa, before jumping up and demanding: ‘Dance with me.’
He said that they danced in the office and began kissing, before he performed a sex act on her as she sat on the sofa.
‘She made all the appropriate noises,’ he told the court.
Armstrong said the couple then had sex for several minutes, but the complainant got up to change the music when a ‘mood-killer’ song came on.
He said: ‘After a little while she said, ‘some people are going to think that you have taken advantage of me’, but it was in a sort of teasing voice.
‘I responded, “I’m not sure anyone could come to that conclusion”.’
Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay (left) told a trial that Samuel Armstrong (right), his chief of staff, was like a son to him
Armstrong, pictured with former prime minister David Cameron, denies raping the woman
Armstrong said the woman then sat on top of him and they began to have sex.
He told the court: ‘I said to her, “how does the size suit the lady?”, which is something I have heard tailors say.
‘And she says the size suits very, very well.’
Defence barrister Sarah Forshaw QC said: ‘Were you being serious both of you during the course of this conversation?’
He replied: ‘We were joshing around and being funny. I was being a bit of a prat.’
The alleged incident was said to have happened in the Norman Shaw North building (pictured right)
Armstrong said the couple then had sex for several minutes, but the complainant got up to change the music when a ‘mood-killer’ song came on
Armstrong, from Danbury in Essex, was arrested after the woman was captured on CCTV running through the corridors of Westminster in tears.
Describing how he felt when he was arrested, he said: ‘I didn’t really know what to think. I thought there must have been some sort of mistake.
‘It must have been that they had got the wrong name.’
He added: ‘It was just like somebody had punched me in the stomach. I was winded.’
The trial continues.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.