Rape accused denies 'drunken, sexual excitement'

A former school teacher accused of raping a 19-year-old man after a night out has denied getting "carried away with drunken, sexual excitement".

Mark Lett, 43, said he believed the man he met at a seafront bus stop in Brighton, East Sussex, in December 2024 with his flatmate, co-accused George Ellis, had consented to sex.

Lett and Ellis, 41, respectively of Chessington, Greater London, and Esher, Surrey, both deny rape.

Lett, a former assistant headteacher at a school in London, told jurors that they ran away from the scene after the man started lashing out at him and shouting that he was being raped.

Ian Hope, prosecuting, told Lett that he "knew you were leaving behind a young man who was alleging he had been raped and there had been violence".

Lett told the jury that he was "thinking about the fighting" and "didn't really think that the allegation of rape meant anything because we didn't do it".

Hope later argued that Lett "got carried away" with his own "drunken, sexual excitement and you both got it very, very wrong". Lett replied: "I don't believe that."

Lett was arrested on 26 December 2024 after the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, contacted Sussex Police.

Following his arrest, Lett told police that the 19-year-old performed a sex act on him and said the encounter was "100% consensual".

Lett also told officers that the three men later moved to a basement stairwell to have a threesome.

He and Ellis had travelled to Brighton for Christmas drinks and had checked into a hotel in the city before going out.

Lett has since resigned from his teaching job while waiting for trial, he said.

Both men are also charged with causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault with intent to commit a relevant sexual offence – which they also deny.

The trial continues.

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