A FORMER restaurateur who denies rape and assault has admitted in court to lying under caution after being arrested about separate grave and criminal assault offences he pleaded guilty to before his trial was due to start.
Gavin Neil Roberts (44) is accused of assaulting one woman and raping and assaulting another.
On a separate occasion, Mr Roberts was arrested after having assaulted the second woman, who was found with injuries to her face.
Mr Roberts initially denied these two assaults, claiming that he acted in self-defence.
But he pleaded guilty to the two charges of grave and criminal assault last week shortly before the jury were sworn in, the Royal Court heard yesterday.
Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit, prosecuting, put to Mr Roberts that he had lied in his interview, under caution.
He said: “This is not misremembering.
“This is just a plain set of lies, isn’t it?”
Giving evidence to the jury, Mr Roberts said: “Yes. If you put it like that, yes.”
Advocate Maletroit asked why he had changed his plea shortly before the jury were sworn in, saying: “When you changed your plea to guilty, is that because you were faced with such overwhelming evidence in respect to counts five and six?”
“No,” Mr Roberts answered. “I changed my plea because I realised exactly what I had done.”
Advocate Maletroit asked: “You realised what you had done an hour, half an hour before the jury were sworn in?”
Mr Roberts said that he indicated that he would be entering a guilty plea in the days leading up to the start of the trial.
He accepted that the victim of the offences he has pleaded guilty to had been telling the truth – but said she was lying in her other allegations.
Advocate Maletroit ran through a list of Mr Roberts’ previous convictions, including 38 counts of fraud.
He said: “You are someone to whom being dishonest comes naturally.”
Mr Roberts denied this.
“And now, Mr Roberts, you have lied under oath in front of the jury, haven’t you?” Advocate Maletroit asked.
“No, I have not,” the defendant said.
The Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, is presiding.
The trial continues.
