Bartholomeo Joly de Lotbiniere was found not guilty of charges of rape and assault by penetration following a retrial at Bradford Crown Court
A former University Challenge contestant has been cleared of raping a woman in her halls of residence after a second trial.
Bartholomeo Joly de Lotbiniere was found not guilty of charges of rape and assault by penetration following a retrial at Bradford Crown Court.
The 22-year-old told the court he had consensual sex with the student in June 2014, and was embarrassed as he failed to perform.
The woman, now 22, went to police after seeing Mr Joly de Lotbiniere on the BBC television programme a year later.
She said she saw a tweet by Pointless host Richard Osman about the defendant’s name and ‘just got angry and upset’.
The woman accused Joly de Lotbiniere of having sex without consent in her room after an end of year night-out – something he claimed were ‘horrible, horrible lies’.
He told the court he and the woman went out in town and returned to her halls of residence in the early hours of the morning, where they then started to kiss.
After going to find a condom, Mr Joly de Lotbiniere said she was lying on her bed and helped him to get undressed.
He claimed there was a lot of ‘fumbling’ around and the complainant had ‘helped him’ as he was not fully erect. The pair then made a mutual decision to stop.
He said: ‘I was nervous and there was no point in going any further. We both agreed to stop.’
‘There was no point going any further. We both just agreed to stop. I think she said ‘let’s just stop’.’
The defendant said he was embarrassed by what happened and just wanted to leave.
Mr Joly de Lotbiniere denied the woman had shown any signs she did not want to have sex or that she tried to push him off her.
The former York student admitted he tried to portray himself to the woman as someone who was comfortable with a one-night stand, but in fact he was not.
After having sex with the woman, Mr Joly de Lotbiniere text her that he felt like a ‘disgrace’ and had acted like a 14-year-old because he had not been able to perform sexually.
The messages were read out to the court between the alleged victim and Mr Joly de Lotbiniere.
The complainant texted him: ‘I thought I’d let you know I wasn’t overly comfortable with what happened on Thursday night.’
Mr Joly de Lotbiniere was found not guilty after a retrial at Bradford Crown Court
Mr Joly de Lotbiniere replied: ‘Neither did I. I was a disgrace and did a very stupid thing and I am very sorry for what I did.
‘I just hope you can forgive me at some point and I’ll try my best not to act like a bloody 14 year old again and start acting my age, sorry.’
He explained his text to the court by saying: ‘I had embarrassed myself – I had posed as someone who could do a one-night stand.
‘And I felt like I had misled her because she had to help me.
‘I acted like a 14-year-old – someone who is all talk and no substance but has no sexual experience.
‘I should have been upfront and acted my age – been honest that this was only my second time.’
It took a jury six hour to find the former history student not guilty.
He hugged his family in the public gallery before leaving the court room and refused to speak outside court.
Mr Joly de Lotbiniere, of Kensal Rise, London, faced a retrial after the jury at his original trial at York Crown Court in February were unable to reach verdicts.