Actress feared film director ‘could rape me if he wanted to’, court told

An actress feared a Bafta-nominated film director could have “raped her” if he wanted to during an alleged sexual assault at her home, a court has heard.

Giving evidence at Isleworth Crown Court, the sobbing woman alleged Stephen Fingleton had pushed her head towards his crotch and said, “You get down there, you get down there”.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the alleged incident happened while she was hanging up her laundry after having lunch with the director and had “felt sexual”.

She added: “I bent down, was leaning down, to hang it on the bottom rail and he took my head and pushed it towards him and said, ‘You get down there, you get down there’.

“It felt sexual so I said, ‘I don’t know what you think that this is but for me this was a business meeting’, then I sort of stood up straight.

“Then he said, ‘I don’t separate the two’.”

But when she told Fingleton she was not interested, he had held her hands and tried to kiss her, the jury heard.

She added: “He said, ‘Can I just have one kiss’ and I said, ‘No’.

“He pulled me closer and tried to kiss me but I kept turning my cheek.

“As he was holding my hands I remember thinking he is much stronger than me and he could rape me if he wanted to and I remember just shouting, ‘You have to leave now’.”

The court heard that after the alleged incident on October 27 2017, the woman texted her friend telling them Fingleton had been “totally Harvey Weinstein”.

Fingleton, 35, from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, denies one count of sexual assault.

Fingleton and the woman had met at the after-party of the British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival in Leicester Square in October 2017, the court heard.

A jury of six men and six women was told he complimented her on her dress and when he told her he was looking for an actress for one of his films, the pair exchanged numbers.

He texted her that same night and the pair bumped into each other at the BFI closing night before eventually arranging to meet for lunch at her Fulham home, prosecutors said.

But prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward said during their lunch, Fingleton began to bring up sexual topics “out of the blue” such as whether the actress had done nudity.

But the woman, who is in her twenties, began to feel uncomfortable when Fingleton touched her shoulder “quite unexpectedly and seemingly unnecessarily” as he went past her, the prosecutor added.

Ms Ledward said the woman did not say anything because “she did not want to offend and ruin a possible work opportunity if she had gotten the wrong end of the stick”.

Ms Ledward said Fingleton cornered the woman in the kitchen, boxing her in with his hands so she had to push past him to get out.

The jury heard Fingleton had stroked her hair and put his arm around her while they watched a film she was in.

But the court was told that later when she was crouching down doing her washing, Fingleton grabbed her head and pulled it to his crotch.

Ms Ledward said: “The defendant grabbed the top of her head with his hands and pushed it towards his crotch.

“She felt he was directing her to perform oral sex on him.”

Ms Ledward said when Fingleton left, the woman texted a friend saying he had been “totally Harvey Weinstein” and was encouraged to go to the police.

The trial continues.