Policeman accused of raping ‘paralytically drunk’ woman and getting her pregnant on night out

Sergeant with West Yorkshire Police denies charges against him

The trial, expected to last five days, continues at Bradford Crown Court (Wikimedia Commons)

A policeman raped a woman and got her pregnant after “plying her with drinks” on a night out, a court has been told.

Ben Lister, 36, is accused of having sex with the “paralytically drunk” victim – who was 20 at the time – as she “drifted in and out of consciousness” at a friend’s house.

He then lied when she asked if the pair had slept together, telling her he had “only performed oral sex”, Bradford Crown Court was told.

Lister said the woman was later “in denial” that the baby had resulted from him raping her, but a DNA test proved Mr Lister was “18 million” times more likely to be the dad than not.

Richard Woolfall, prosecuting, told the jury Mr Lister assaulted the woman after they had gone to a nightclub during the August bank holiday weekend in 2016.

He said the woman was “paralytically drunk” after attending a nightclub with Lister, who had “kept bringing drinks” to her. She had then got a taxi back to a friend’s house, where they had both slept on separate sofas.

But in the early hours of the morning, the woman woke to Lister pulling her from the sofa and “drifted in and out of consciousness” during the rape, the court was told.

“On the one hand she knew that the child was the product of a rape, but she was in denial about it,” Mr Woolfall said. “She was only young, and it was a lot to get her head around, and it took her quite some time to get her head around it.”

“In addition, the person who raped her was a police officer.”

Mr Lister, a sergeant with West Yorkshire Police, denies one count of rape and another of assault by penetration.

Mr Wolfall told the court the woman’s “first recollection” of what happened included being “dragged off her sofa onto the floor”.

“She had periods when she drifted in and out of consciousness, so she only remembers brief snapshots of what happened, before slipping back into sleep,” he said.

“She had no recollection of actually having sex with him – although it’s not sex if you're not in a position to agree.”

He continued: “The following morning, she felt soreness to her vagina. And so later, she sent him a message on Facebook messenger, a private message, asking if they had sex together that night.

“His response? He denied it. He said he had only performed oral sex.”

Mr Woolfall added that once the woman found out she was pregnant, she went into denial about the alleged rape.

He said: “She didn't want her daughter, who she went onto have, to be known as a rape baby. “[But] it’s one thing to falsely accuse someone of rape, it's quite another to label your child the victim of rape if it’s not true.”

The court also heard that Mr Lister denied he had sex with the woman because he wanted to get back together with a former partner.

The trial, expected to last five days, continues.