Film of Novichok fraudster raping unconscious woman was found by his partner

A playboy who falsely claimed to have been poisoned with Novichok has been jailed for eight years for filming himself raping an unconscious woman.

Alex King, 43, and his partner Anna Shapiro pretended they were taken ill due to the effects of the Russian nerve agent after dining at Prezzo in Salisbury in September 2018.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned with Novichok in a genuine attack in the city in March last year.

Southwark Crown Court heard that the victim, who cannot be named, met King outside a nightclub on the evening of 26 July on a night out with colleagues.

Prosecutor Paul Casey said: ‘She got into a conversation with Mr King and was invited to a party.

‘Mr King described having consensual sex with her that evening.’

Mr Casey told the court that one of the King’s friends filmed King having sex with the severely intoxicated woman on his phone.

‘The quality is really poor and grainy.

‘One can see Mr King having sex with her and being filmed.

‘She acts in an uninhibited way, consistent with being inebriated, and at the end of the film she says ‘stop it’, possibly after realising she was being filmed,’ said Mr Casey.

‘To be clear, the sex that took place a this part of the evening does not form part of the allegation but it is evidence of the victim’s vulnerable state that evening.’

The court heard that a second video, filmed by King himself on a camera at just after 6am that morning, shows him raping the unconscious woman at his address.

‘At no point throughout this footage does the victim move, make a noise or open her eyes.

‘She is completely unconscious,’ said Mr Casey.

The woman was fully clothed save her underwear and with her glasses perched on her forehead as King committed the assault.

‘In the victim’s initial account to the police, she says she when she woke up, Mr King was in the process of having vaginal sex with her.

‘She allowed him to finish and left quickly afterwards,’ said the prosecutor.

‘She didn’t give any indication of knowing she was being filmed or consenting to it.’

The video, which King had deleted, was discovered by his then-partner on 4 August that year using a piece of software, and she handed it over to the police.

When the police showed the video to the horrified woman, she told them she had no recollection of those events and strongly suspected she was also drugged.

In a victim impact statement read in court, she described first meeting King and his friends that night.

‘I met some men outside a club who were well-spoken, friendly, and said they were gay,’ she said.

‘Going with them was a terrible decision which I will always regret.’

She said that after the rape, her first priority was to get back to the safety of her flat.

‘I was mortified and distressed to contacted by the police telling me the stranger who had raped me had made a video recording,’ she continued.

She said she decided not to go ahead with the case at the time as she had no idea what to expect in court.

‘I didn’t want a jury to see that video of myself being named and being raped.

‘I imagined barristers would assassinate my character,’ she said.

The court heard the trauma of that rape had a profound impact on her professional and personal life, including her engagement breaking down.

‘I was heart-broken and couldn’t really explain to anyone why my wedding was cancelled,’ she said.

‘Several months later my fiance and I were reunited and we have now been married for ten years.

‘I tried for several years not to think about that night in 2007 or the horrible months afterwards,

‘I didn’t want to think of myself as a victim of rape.’

But the court heard that an incident in 2017 brought the memories back and she decided to get in touch with the police again.

‘I have been asked to look at further video evidence of which I have no memory of in which I appear very drugged and vulnerable.

‘I have no idea how to prepare myself for those videos being viewed by strangers,’ she added.

‘Twelve years on, I am glad this case is being taken seriously and I am able to talk about it.

‘In doing so, I hope to encourage other rape victims to come forward and seek support.’

Judge Deborah Taylor told King: ‘What is clear from the footage you yourself filmed on the camera is that you had vaginal sex with her when she was unconscious, she doesn’t move during the sexual intercourse.

‘She was also fully clothed apart from her underwear and this footage came to light.

‘That was in 2007.

‘You were then interviewed subsequently four times then and said that the incident shown on the film was consensual.’

‘I have read the victim impact statement and it was clear she was severely affected, her life was affected by what you did, both personally and in her professional life,’ added the judge.

‘There is no doubt you took advantage of a young woman who drank too much and didn’t care about what you did but were callous and filmed the rape.’

King, in a brown jumper and jeans didn’t react to the sentence as his partner Ms Shapiro supported the rapist from the public gallery.

Merry Van Woodenberg, defending, said: ‘This did happen some 12 years ago.

‘Mr King was 31 years old.

‘The incident described take place over eight minutes.’

Ms Van Woodenberg said that the defence case was that the earlier acts filmed at the party were consensual.

‘He has not committed any further sexual offence since 2007, and that suggests having learned his lesson,’ added Ms Woodenberg.

‘I would also, although it doesn’t excuse what has occurred, draw you attention to the fact that he was heavily inebriated and a much younger man.’

Judge Taylor interjected: ‘Not so inebriated he couldn’t set up the filming on the camera.’

The court heard that King was placed on the sex offender’s register and received a three-year community order in 2004 for distributing indecent photographs of children.

He was jailed for 11 years earlier this year for conspiring to supply cocaine, ecstasy and diazepam.

Police had raided King’s address on 29 June 2016 and found a variety of drugs in two safes, including cocaine worth up to £60,000.

His accomplice Baljit Gill, 38, was also convicted of conspiracy to supply drugs and jailed for nine years in January.

The rape attack happened at 32 Portland Place in Marylebone on 27 July 2007. The address was near the home of King’s friend, convicted conman ‘Lord’ Edward Davenport.

Davenport, an ex-business partner of King, was forced to sell his 33 Portland Place mansion in 2015 for £14million after his release from an eight-year prison sentence for fraud in 2011.

He threw a sex party at a £12.5m townhouse in Park Lane in December 2018 where Romanian bouncer Tudor Simionov, 33, was stabbed to death.

Davenport’s 24-room Portland Place mansion had used for scenes in the Oscar winning film ‘The King’s Speech’.

In 2006, King won a £100,000 bet with Davenport after he gatecrashed the film premier of the History Boys and shook the hand of Prince Charles.

King went on the run to avoid his drugs trial earlier this year and was initially jailed in his absence before he was finally arrested in June.

Sebastian Gardiner, defending, had earlier told King’s trial he is ‘something of a playboy’, attending high-end sex parties and rubbing shoulders with various VIPs.

‘He is someone that appears to revel in the lifestyle,’ said Mr Gardiner, showing the jury pictures of King next to flash cars and celebrities.

Mr Gardiner said King also took escort bookings for Ms Shapiro.

‘There is evidence to suggest his partner was a high-class escort, charging hundreds of pounds for her services which she would advertise with escort websites and with agencies.’

King, now a prisoner at HMP Swaleside, has admitted one charge of rape.

He has been jailed for eight years and placed on the sex offenders’ list indefinitely.

His sentence will not begin until the half way point of his current 11 year jail term.

ends