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UK NEWS

FORMER CORONATION STREET STAR ‘DRUGGED AND RAPED STUDENT'

Tuesday June 6,2006

A FORMER Coronation Street star raped a pretty student in a nightclub after plying her with drink and drugs, a court heard yesterday.

Chris Quinten – mechanic Brian Tilsley in the ITV soap – allegedly lured the 22-year-old away from her friends by offering her cocaine and champagne.

In a back room Quinten, 48, ignored her pleas to leave her alone, the jury was told. He had earlier allegedly expertly chopped up cocaine and tried to get her to take it from his credit card.

But because of her inexperience the brunette allegedly spilt it down herself. She said she then took it "with a £10 note he had rolled".

Quinten, now a party promoter who organises events in clubs across London and has a "database" of pretty girls to attend his evenings, then chatted pleasantly to her.

He asked about her studies and jobs at an animal sanctuary and as a waitress at a lapdancing club, Spearmint Rhino, at Heathrow.

But then things suddenly allegedly turned sinister at trendy club 10 Rooms, off Piccadilly Circus, on June 25 last year. He allegedly placed himself between her legs, leaving her unable to move from a ledge she had perched on.

The woman told Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court that he demanded "just one small kiss on the lips" before pulling her hair out of its ponytail and trying to kiss her again.

She said he then began to perform a sex act on himself before putting his hands up her skirt and then allegedly raping her.

She said: "I was trying to move but I didn't have that much room to move because I was on that little ledge. I was saying, ‘Please Chris, can we go? Can we go now? I don't want this. That's enough now. Please get off'.

"I was looking at the door and thinking of ways to try and talk my way out of this.

"I thought, ‘I can try and talk my way out of this or fight my way out of this and I chose not to be violent'.

"Then all of a sudden he just got off. He said, ‘Don't tell anyone this can be our secret'."

After the alleged rape, the woman said she dashed to the ladies toilets and texted her friend saying, "Help me, where are you?" and they fled the club before calling police.

Quinten, who arrived at court with his girlfriend Alison Slater, had met the woman at Stringfellows nightclub in February last year.

The woman said she found him "sleazy" but gave him her number so that she could get free entry and drinks at his club party nights. The woman admitted that on the night of the alleged rape in June at 10 Rooms she was "tipsy", having drunk vodka before leaving home and then four glasses of white wine provided by Quinten.

She said: "He came up to me and said, ‘Do you want anything but drink? Or is it only drink you do?' I assumed it meant ‘did I want drugs?'."

Quinten, real name Chris Bell, denies rape.

The trial continues.


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