Tory aide 'raped woman in MP's office when she refused to go home with him'

An MP’s chief of staff raped a young parliamentary worker in his boss’s House of Commons office when she refused to go home with him, a court heard today.

Samuel Armstrong, 24, pounced on the woman when she began to fall asleep at the end of a drunken night out in parliamentary bars, it was alleged.

She was seen on CCTV running through the corridors of Westminster “in distress” after the alleged rape, then broke down as she told a cleaner about the attack, jurors heard.

Armstrong and the woman had been drinking with other Westminster workers in October last year at the House of Commons Sports and Social Bar, going up to a roof terrace together to watch Big Ben chime.

Armstrong then took the woman, in her twenties, for wine at a House of Lords office terrace, before they headed to the office of his boss Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP for South Thanet.

Southwark crown court heard that Armstrong put on jazz music as they chatted then pounced on her when she started to fall asleep, but called her a “bitch” when she refused to go home with him to Clapham.

Mark Heywood QC, for the prosecution, claimed that Armstrong turned “insistent and determined”, stripping the woman naked and forcing himself on her, saying: “This is what you want.”

“His reaction was telling, it was one of entitlement. He was not prepared to accept refusal,” added Mr Heywood.

He said CCTV showed the woman walking arm-in-arm with Armstrong as they headed to the office, but she was seen afterwards “moving in an agitated way”.

“She, in distress, walked and ran through the corridors of Westminster, eventually finding and telling cleaning staff what had happened,” he said.

“She looks around herself and behind her at times and she breaks into a little run from time to time. She came across a cleaning contractor — he saw her crying and upset when she opened the doors behind him. She came to him for help and took his arm, holding on to him.”

Armstrong was a Tory volunteer before becoming Mr Mackinlay’s chief of staff. He and the woman took wine back to the MP’s office in the Norman Shaw building on the parliamentary estate.

“The move to the office outside working hours would not have been sanctioned by Mr Mackinlay. He had previously made clear that the office was not to be used for social purposes out of hours when he was not there,” said Mr Heywood.

He said Armstrong played jazz on his laptop as they chatted on the sofa, but she started to fall asleep.

“This is where it all began to go wrong,” claimed Mr Heywood. “The defendant took advantage of the situation, she has been obviously and openly friendly towards him.

“The next she was aware of, she was leaning back on the sofa and his hand was moving towards her left breast. He was leaning over her, pulling her bottom lip and kissing her on her mouth and on her neck.”

Mr Heywood said that Armstrong had asked the woman to come home with him to Clapham but she “mumbled” the word No. He then sexually assaulted and raped her before she put on her clothes and fled the office, it was alleged.

Armstrong was arrested at home at 5.30am, just a few hours after the alleged attack, and in a prepared statement denied rape and said that any contact with the woman “was at all times consensual”.

Armstrong, from Danbury, Essex, denies two counts of rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault.

The trial continues.