Husband accused of ‘repeatedly raping his spouse over a few years’ says he was affected by sexomnia

A man accused of raping his wife repeatedly has claimed he was sleepwalking and suffering from ‘sexomnia’ when he forced himself on her, a court has heard. 

The 62-year-old defendant – who cannot be named as it would identify his ex-wife – is on trial charged with ‘repeatedly raping and sexually abusing’ her on a monthly basis between 2006 and 2017. 

The alleged victim told a court she was left fearing for her life during one of the attacks and repeatedly told him to get some help during the course of their marriage.

The defendant, from Cornwall, denies six rape charges, one count of sexual abuse and two of attempted rape.

Opening the trial at Truro Crown Court, prosecutor Heather Hope told the jury: ‘He has claimed that this happened without knowledge of what he was doing.’

But she said when the defendant’s wife told him what he had done, he apologised and said it would not happen again.

The prosecutor continued: ‘The defendant at the time said he was unaware of what he was doing and had no control of what he was doing.’

She said the jury will hear from two sleepwalking experts during the trial about a condition called sexomnia.

Sexomnia is characterised by an individual engaging in sexual behaviour while asleep.

The judge told the jury it was an unusual case and that the defendant ‘may have done these things but was sleepwalking and under the effect of it’.

The 62-year-old defendant is on trial charged with ‘repeatedly raping and sexually abusing’ his wife on a monthly basis between 2006 and 2017

Giving evidence, the wife told the court that, when they got married, their sex life was ‘low key and conservative’ – but her husband’s behaviour changed after their first child was born.

She said she would wake up to find her ‘strong’ husband pleasuring himself over her face as he pushed her head down.

She said he raped her in bed, but when she challenged him he said he did not believe her.  

The defendant would apologise to her and say it would not happen again, but it did, the court heard. 

On one occasion, the victim said she feared her husband would kill her when he pinned her down on the bed and put his hand over her nose so she could not breathe.

She claimed she was then sexually assaulted.  

Fighting back tears, she said it was ‘the worst experience of my life’. She subsequently confronted her husband and said he could have killed her.

It was this incident that led her to confide in a colleague about what had happened, as well as beginning to keep diary entries about the abuse.  

She searched online and found a reference to sexomnia, but she said the abuse continued and ‘he just carried on until he was finished and he stopped’.

When he was interviewed by police, the husband denied raping her and said sex was always consensual.

He said he had ‘absolutely no memory’ of what he was being accused of doing and did not recall apologising to his wife.

The defendant told police he contacted his GP about sleepwalking, but denied having any conversations with his wife about sexomnia.

Ms Hope said parasomnia is a condition where in certain circumstances people who are asleep engage in certain types of sexual activity.

But she said the wife repeatedly told the defendant he was hurting her and having sex with her when she did not want it – yet it happened time and time again, over many years.

The trial continues.