Australian-born cricketer Alex Hepburn on Tuesday was sentenced to five years of imprisonment by an English court for raping a woman whom he found ‘dozing’ in his teammate’s bedroom.
The 23-year-old cricketer was convicted following an attack, which took place during the first night of a sexual conquest ‘game’ he helped set up on a WhatsApp group.
Prosecutors while announcing the sentence said that the former Worcestershire all-rounder was ‘fired up’ by a contest to sleep with most women, before committing the crime at his flat in Worcester, central England, in April 2017.
Judge Jim Tindal, who announced the jailing Hepburn at Hereford Crown Court, was quoted by news agency AFP as saying that the ‘immature’ cricketer and his former teammate had agreed a ‘pathetic sexist game to collect as many sexual encounters as possible.’
He further stated, “You probably thought it was laddish behaviour at the time. In truth it was foul sexism. It demeaned women and trivialised rape — a word you personally threw around lightly. Only now do you realise how serious rape is.”
Hepburn’s lawyer Michelle Heeley said that Hepburn expressed remorse over his actions. Earlier this month, a jury had found the cricketer guilty of oral rape to the same victim, however clearing him of the charge of rape.
Speaking on the incident, the victim had told the Worcester Crown Court that she incorrectly thought she was having an intercourse with Hepburn’s then county teammate Joe Clarke after meeting him in a nightclub.
She further told the jurors that she had consensual sex with Clarke, who left his bedroom in the early hours to be sick in a bathroom, where he passed out.
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