Former Spandau Ballet singer Ross Davidson has been sentenced after being discovered responsible of a collection of rapes and assaults in opposition to six completely different ladies.
After two trials, the 37-year-old was remanded in custody, with Decide John Dodd KC ordering a report in February to evaluate the hazard Davidson would pose sooner or later, setting his sentencing date for April 30.
This morning he appeared at Wooden Inexperienced Crown Court docket in London the place he was jailed for 14 years.
In a press release shared with Metro, Shikha Verma, chief prosecutor at CPS London, stated: ‘Ross Davidson is a predatory intercourse offender who has focused a number of victims over a variety of years. A number of of those crimes had been dedicated in opposition to ladies whereas they slept.
‘I wish to pay tribute to the victims for his or her monumental braveness in supporting the prosecution, and Davidson has now been held accountable for his horrific crimes.
‘We perceive the braveness it takes to come back ahead with victims and wish to reassure all victims that the CPS will proceed to work tirelessly with companions throughout the felony justice system to make sure sexual abusers face the complete extent of the regulation.’
The Aberdeen-born musical theater actor, who starred within the Queen-based West Finish musical We Will Rock You, was first convicted in July 2024 after his first trial for rape, two counts of sexual assault and voyeurism, involving offenses in opposition to 4 ladies.
Throughout the second trial, after greater than eleven hours of deliberation, a jury convicted him of the rape of a girl in London in March 2015 and the tried rape and sexual assault of one other lady in Thailand in December 2019.
Davidson had beforehand pleaded responsible in December 2019 to a voyeurism cost in opposition to the identical lady in Thailand after a video he took of her whereas she slept was discovered on his cell phone.
Nevertheless, the musician, who used the stage title Ross Wild, insisted his contact with the ladies he met on courting app Tinder was at all times consensual and described himself as ‘intercourse constructive’.
Davidson informed the courtroom earlier this yr that this was about “open dialogue, openness about individuals’s preferences, simply openness to making an attempt out completely different sexual wishes.”
This might embrace bondage, restraint and group intercourse, and he had been to a intercourse get together ‘a few times’.
He had pleaded not responsible to his fees of rape, tried rape and sexual assault.
In distinction, jurors heard he carried out the assaults as a result of he felt he may have ‘intercourse on demand’ if he was not ‘given what he thought he deserved’, with prosecutor Richard Hearnden saying Davidson was seen as ‘a little bit of a intercourse image’. Two of the ladies stated he had a “a lot darker facet” that they did not discover “at first.”
One rape sufferer informed the jury that Davidson attacked her whereas she was sleeping in his mattress and recalled feeling “helpless” and “afraid to reply.” Earlier than Davidson attacked her, “he stated he loved having intercourse with a model, an individual in a helpless state, somebody who is just not transferring.”
Jurors additionally heard he put a intercourse collar and wrist cuffs on her for about 20 minutes with out her consent, which “confused her” and left her in a “state of shock” earlier than taking them off when she requested.
In courtroom, Davidson referred to as all these claims about abuse and a intercourse collar an “outright lie.”
Concerning the assault on one other lady in Thailand, she stated she awoke in her mattress in a lodge and noticed him making an attempt to have intercourse along with her with out her consent or utilizing a condom.
Davidson allegedly thanked her for “being calm about it” as she “calmly talked him out of” the rape.
She stayed with him that night time, which she described as ‘regrettable however trustworthy’, earlier than they frolicked collectively on a seashore and sightseeing journey the following day.
Detectives tracked her down after discovering Davidson’s video displaying her being fondled whereas loud night breathing, “asleep, silent and unresponsive” and “no less than semi-naked,” the prosecutor stated. She had no concept the video existed till police informed her in 2023.
In her testimony, the lady strongly rejected a suggestion from Davidson that she had allowed him to the touch her whereas she slept, telling the jury: “Why would I need a man to the touch me when I’m in a state of unconsciousness?”
He had claimed she ‘informed it’ [him] she was in love with [him]’ and added: ‘it was not answered’.
Davidson additionally informed investigators, “I am certain an tried rape is a traumatic expertise. How on earth would you spend time with somebody intimately of their lodge if somebody had tried to rape you?’
Moreover, Davidson had already informed police in his interview that they talked about “kinks and fantasies” earlier than having consensual intercourse, saying he made the video “for egocentric causes, for sexual gratification.”
He then turned emotional and informed the jury: ‘I want I might by no means executed it.’
An preliminary investigation into Davidson, who carried out with the Nineteen Eighties Spandau Ballet in 2018, started in 2019, police stated, after officers discovered quite a few movies of him raping and sexually assaulting victims on his units.
Detective Kamila Kedadrova, who was a part of the investigation group, referred to as him a “prolific perpetrator who carried out cowardly and opportunistic assaults on his victims.”
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