Ex-Spandau Ballet star Ross William Wild a ‘serial rapist’, court docket informed

Former Spandau Ballet singer Ross William Wild is a serial rapist who had ‘a kink’ of wanting to have sex with sleeping women, a court has heard.

Jurors were told that Wild – whose real name is Ross Davidson – wanted to have sex up to six times a night and would force himself on women who refused him.

The opening of the trial began at London‘s Wood Green crown court on Tuesday where he is accused of a series of sex offences against five women and raping three of them over a decade between 2013 and 2023.

The 36-year-old Scotsman, who allegedly told one victim he liked the idea of having sex with a mannequin or doll, faces further charges of voyeurism, intimidation and controlling behaviour.

Davidson, who became lead singer of 1980s pop band Spandau Ballet in 2018, is accused of asking the first woman he attacked in 2013: ‘Why do you look like you’ve been raped?’

The court heard that Davidson was ‘a bit of a sex symbol’ after starring in the West End musical We Will Rock You about a decade ago.

Jurors were told he was ‘very good looking’ but had a ‘darker’ and ‘sinister’ side and ‘expected to get sex on demand.

He is accused of himself fondling women while they slept and enjoyed role-playing rape scenarios, it is claimed.

Aberdeen-born Davidson had ‘a kink’ of wanting to have sex with sleeping women, jurors were told.

Davidson appeared for his trial wearing a light grey suit and light pink shirt.

Prosecutor Richard Hearden said: ‘As a performer and as an individual, Wild was a bit of a sex symbol.

‘He is very good looking and physically fit. He sings, plays the guitar, and is said to be charming and charismatic. His darker side is not the first thing that many women and girls notice about him.

‘But the women in this case can all attest to that sinister part of his personality. For it is alleged that he has raped, coerced, and sexually assaulted a number of young women over the last decade.

‘It is often supposed that men such as the defendant, blessed with good looks and star quality, can get any girl he wants without having to resort to committing sexual offences, without having to resort to forcing himself on women, without having to resort to rape.

‘Yet, the reality belies that supposition. In this case, many young women have come forward to tell the police that they have been victims of Mr Davidson’s predatory behaviour.

‘It is because he expects to get sex on demand that he will resort to rape and sexual assault if he is not given what he thinks he deserves.’

Davidson filmed himself allegedly raping the first woman after they had an argument at his flat on October 1 2013.

‘Afterwards, he said to her ‘why do you look like you’ve been raped’. She was shocked he would ask such a question.

‘Unusually, there is actually independent proof of what happened.

‘This is because the defendant secretly filmed it. This is not the only video of him abusing women and girls that will feature in this case.

‘Why he chose to film it and the others is not known, but it would seem he was doing it for his own personal gratification and, one imagines, so he could watch the videos in the future.

‘The defence case here is that this was role-play. It involved her looking like a rape victim in a rape scenario.’

The alleged victim told the court how Davidson called her derogatory names such as ‘slut’ and a ‘whore’ before he raped her.

She said she was sat on the edge of the bed and Davidson was aggressive, angry and pacing up and down the bedroom.

Mr Hearnden asked her: ‘What sort of things was he saying?’

The woman replied: ‘I think insults again, I can’t remember, just aggressive comments, putting me down, calling me a slut, calling me a whore,’ she replied.

Mr Hearnden: ‘Did he touch you at all?’

The alleged victim replied: ‘Yes, he proceeded to touch me, he invaded my personal space and then started to touch me.’

When the prosecutor asked what was going through her mind, she replied: ‘What is going on, this is when I was in tears, we were having an argument, this isn’t a time to even be this close to someone let alone instigating something.

‘He suddenly became calm and was telling me that this is what I want, this is what I deserve.’

She then told the court how he allegedly pushed her onto the bed and started ‘having sex with me and telling me this is what I wanted’.

‘He was quite aggressive, quite strong, there was not really much point in me trying to push him off me,’ she said.

She said they then got into an argument as she told him to get off her. When they finished, he got up and ‘had a cigarette’. 

‘He then said, ‘you look like you have just been raped.’

‘At the time, I was like ‘surely that did not just happen.’

‘I did not want to believe what he said was true, because it was for self-preservation.

‘The bedroom has doors that back onto his outdoor space, he was in that area and there, you could see him and have a conversation still.’

The prosecutor asked the woman: ‘Why not report it straight away?

‘I did not believe it happened, I did not want to believe it, it became normal, it became something I felt like I deserved.’

The prosecutor asked her: ‘Did you and he ever talk about it?’

The woman said: ‘He didn’t speak to me about it, I brought it up years later and he said, ‘no, I don’t remember that.’

It is further alleged that he sexually assaulted the same woman.

The court heard that he said to the woman: ‘This is what you want’.

 It is further claimed he filmed himself sexually assaulting a second woman by fondling her breasts. The prosecutor described the graphic footage to the court.

The woman was interviewed by the police.

‘According to the complainant, the defendant said to her that he had a particular fantasy,’ said the prosecutor.

‘He said it was his fantasy, his desire, to have sex with a woman while she was asleep.’

‘The woman says that she was disgusted and distressed about the video when she found out about it.’

Davidson allegedly attacked a third woman in Cannes, where he had gone for the film festival in May 2018.

‘It was in Cannes that the defendant then sexually assaulted her,’ said Mr Hearnden.

‘What he did to her was bizarre and perverted: he fondled her breasts while she was fast asleep. She didn’t know this, of course.’

‘The complainant has identified herself from a screenshot taken from the video, shown to her by the police.

‘When she found out that she had been sexually molested she was devastated. What is especially notable is that she did not report him.’

Davidson is accused of filming a fourth woman without her consent.

‘The complainant described to the police how the defendant filmed her with his mobile phone giving her oral sex,’ said Mr Hearnden.

‘She was open with the interviewing officer and said that she fully consented to doing this.

‘But…she did not realise at all that she was being filmed.

‘Indeed, when she looked up she saw the defendant with his mobile phone in his hand. She said she he was holding his phone in his hand quite low down and it looked suspicious.

‘She asked him if he had been filming her, and he denied it.

‘He said he was just replying to a text. She said she thought it was weird that he was texting while she was doing this for him.’

He is also accused of raping the same woman at his home in Finchley.

‘She had had plenty of sexual intercourse with the defendant and felt sore. She said she didn’t want to have sex with him and told him so repeatedly. She remembers pushing against or on his chest with both her hands to emphasise the point.’

After he had raped her, she went to the bathroom, the court heard.

‘She went to the bathroom and from there she phoned her mum,’ said the prosecutor.

‘Her mother recalls that she was whispering on the phone, saying that the defendant had hurt her.

‘She simply gave her daughter reassurance not knowing, she says, that she had been the victim of a non-consensual act.’

The woman also claims Davidson also made her clean his home.

‘The defendant, if these things are true, was an utterly manipulative and sadistic individual,’ said Mr Hearnden.

‘She was being used as some sort of sexual slave. He wanted to have sexual intercourse five or six times a night.’

‘When she said it was too much, he forced her to have sex with him.

‘He even told her that he had a kink of having sex with women while they were asleep.’

Referring to another complainant the prosecutor said she met Davidson in February 2012 on the online dating app Plenty of Fish.’

In March 2015 she went to stay with him in Finchley.

‘She woke up in the defendant’s bed and found that he was having sex with her while she was asleep,’ said Mr Hearnden.

‘She felt scared, intimidated, and helpless. He was so much stronger than she was and felt concerned for her safety. She definitely did not give the defendant consent to do this.

‘Somehow she managed to extricate herself, went to the bathroom, and put a brave face on it. The last thing she wanted to do was to provoke him further.’

She recalls that, earlier, Davidson had said to her he liked the idea of having sexual intercourse with a ‘model’.

‘He did not mean, it transpired, a supermodel, a very attractive person, but something else entirely.

‘What he was really describing was sex with a dummy, a mannequin, or a doll, that sort of model.

‘He told her, she claims, that he liked the idea of the other person, the woman, being still and not showing any emotion and not reacting to the sexual act at all.

‘She said he never said to her that he wanted to have sex in such a way with her, nor did she tell him that she wanted to play such a role.’

Wild replaced Tony Hadley as Spandau Ballet’s singer in 2018 after a successful West End career including stints in We Will Rock You and Million Dollar Quartet.

He left 11 months after joining the band.

Davidson was arrested at his home on 30 March 2021 and asked about one of the alleged rapes, two of the sexual assaults and the ‘sleep videos’.

The prosecutor said he was interviewed by police and maintained ‘everything was consensual between him and the women concerned and played up that he was unconventional in his sexual tastes’.

Davidson, of Finchley, north London, denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, one count of voyeurism, one count of intimidation and one of controlling behaviour.

The trial continues.