Guest ‘assaulted woman after meeting her at Anthony Joshua party’

A guest assaulted a woman as she slept after meeting her at a party thrown by former world boxing champion Anthony Joshua, a court heard.

Aidan Simmons, 26, allegedly assaulted the woman at her friend’s home after leaving the ticketed event at the boxer’s home in north London in the early hours of 18 September 2022.

Prosecutor Julie Whitby told jurors Simmons introduced himself to the two women as ‘Sunny’ and said he was attending the party at Joshua’s gated mansion with his friend ‘Angus’.

Ms Whitby told the Old Bailey: ‘At some stage in the evening the woman’s friend had a drink with Sunny and this developed into flirting, and they exchanged a kiss.

‘The house party was at Anthony Joshua’s home, he was present, the parties may have seen him, but they did not know him.

‘It was a large house which had a gated premises.

‘It was also a party where people were there and had to buy tickets.’

The complainant told her friend she wanted to leave 4am.

‘The parties ordered an Uber, but the Uber rider didn’t show up or cancelled.

‘So the female’s friend then arranged for them to get a lift with Sunny and Angus in a different Uber.’

The four of them then made their way back to her friend’s home in Hackney, east London and picked up a bottle of wine on the way.

The alleged victim went straight upstairs to bed and called her boyfriend before falling asleep, jurors heard.

Ms Whitby said the ‘next recollection’ she has is waking up lying on her back with Simmons having sex with her.

‘She was initially confused thinking it was her boyfriend, she then murmured ‘stop’.’

‘Confused, she opened her eyes and looked at the male and realised it was the man she knew as ‘Sunny’.

‘She started to hit him, screaming at him ‘stop’ and ‘what was he doing.’

Simmons was arrested at his home on the evening of 18 September and he was taken to the police station.

He was interviewed and accepted he was known as ‘Sunny’.

Simmons agreed he had sexual activity with the woman but insisted it was fully consensual.

‘He said when they were at the female friend’s property he dozed on the couch and then went upstairs as he had wanted conversation and had not hoped for sex,’ said the prosecutor.

Referring to Simmons’ interview Ms Whitby told the court: ‘He asked the woman why she didn’t want to hang out with Angus.

‘She said she ‘wasn’t in the mood’ and then he asked her to come into her bed.

‘Once he got in, he then started to kiss her, and she said something like ‘please do that.’

‘He said he was sucking on one of her breasts, that her eyes were shut and sometimes opening but she awake and was kissing him back.

‘This went on for around five minutes or so.

‘But then suddenly she said she didn’t want sex, she opened her eyes wide and said, ‘what are you doing? No I’m not doing that’ and he then jumped off her.’

In her interview the woman told police she felt ‘disgusting’ and wanted to kill Simmons after the alleged attack.

She said Simmons had continually stared at her and her friend at the party.

‘It was an uncomfortable stare, he wanted to make me know he was staring,’ she said.

The alleged victim said the party was thrown at one of the former world heavyweight boxing champion’s luxury homes in north London.

‘It was like his (Joshua’s) party, so [my friend] had got invited that day by her friend, he said: ‘Anthony Joshua is having a party, do you want to come?’

She said the house had ‘loads of different rooms. It was a gated house party type thing.’

After the party they went back to her friend’s home.

She called her boyfriend before falling asleep while still on the phone to him.

‘I just woke up…and my eyes were closed, and I could feel obviously, I could feel it, like [Simmons] was inside of me, obviously having sex with me.

‘Then he was like, something like, ‘do you want me to stop?’, but my eyes were still closed at the time, and I remember saying ‘stop’ and he carried on, and I said ‘stop’ again.

‘I reached up and when I felt straight hair I was like what the f*** is going on and I open my eyes and I just see him on top of me and then I started going crazy.

‘I said ‘what the f***f are you doing, I was asleep, you’ve raped me ‘and then I was hitting him and hitting him.

‘I just remember saying ‘why would you do that? Why would you do that?’

‘I actually wanted to kill him.

‘I then chased him downstairs…and he’s gone into the living room where my friend and Angus were asleep on the sofa and I just carried on hitting him, I couldn’t breathe.’

The woman told police she ‘literally never spoke one word to him [Simmons].

‘I wish I’d locked the door or something, I feel disgusting.’

Simmons, of Docklands, east London, denies rape.

He appeared in the dock wearing a black suit, white shirt, and blue tie.

The trial continues.