Philip Askew trial: Woman 'revived sexual fantasy''

A woman had a "serious crush" on a champion ice dancer accused of raping her when she was a girl, a court has heard.

Philip Askew, now 44, denies assaulting the woman in 1995 when he was 21 years old.

At Reading Crown Court, Sarah Elliott QC, defending suggested the woman had a "serious crush" on Mr Askew.

Giving evidence, the woman said: "It's no child's fantasy to be groomed and raped".

The woman said she wrote about the attack in her diary as a teenager, which her parents had then read.

In a heated cross examination, which led to the judge ordering a break, defence barrister Sarah Elliott QC said: "When you were you a teenager you had a serious crush on Mr Askew and as a result of that, you wrote a fantasy about that...in your diary.

"You are blaming Philip Askew for the things that have gone wrong in your life," she said.

"You revived this fantasy, as I suggest it is. What revived it was your marriage was in serious trouble."

The woman denied this and said she wanted to "put this to bed" and "safeguard further children".

She told the jury: "I did write [in my diary] what had happened. It was sexual intercourse. It was not made-up fantasy. It was something that actually happened."

The court previously heard the woman was driven to the YMCA in Slough, Berkshire, and raped by Mr Askew, from Nottinghamshire.

The pair knew each other, jurors were told, and the woman blamed herself and felt "very ashamed", later destroying her diary because it made her angry.

At the time, Mr Askew was a star skater and coached young people at Bracknell ice rink, the court heard.

Ms Elliott asked the woman if she had told someone she had been raped at a train station on another occasion, but she denied this, adding a person tried to snatch her handbag.

The trial continues.