Daniel Gravell, 43, is charged with three counts of rape over a period of 20 years. He denies any wrongdoing and said the sex he had with all three accusers was consensual
A Carmarthen man accused of being a triple rapist said he had sex with all three of his accusers but that each time it was consensual, telling police that claims made against him are “laughable” and a “complete waste of time”.
Daniel Gravell, 43, of Porth Y Plas, Johnstown, Carmarthen, has been charged with three counts of rape relating to incidents which took place in 2002, 2005, and 2022. On day six of a trial held at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday, April 29, prosecution barrister Matthew Cobbe read various statements to the court.
Previously, Mr Cobbe told the jury that Gravell raped a woman at a house in Carmarthen in January 2002. The alleged victim described how she left the house and headed into the centre of town with friends. After suddenly feeling unwell she was forced to return to the house where she was sick. She was helped into a bed by her friend but later awoken by a “heavy sensation” and a “thrusting movement”. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here.
She said: “I moved my head, opened my eyes and saw this awful face in front of me, really, really close. There was no sensation in my body. I couldn’t feel anything apart from weight on my chest. I said get off twice.” The complainant also said that during this exchange Gravell told her he was her ex-boyfriend, whom she had recently split from.
Defence barrister Tom Crowther KC asked the complainant “was the sexual encounter with Gravell a deliberate attempt to punish (name of ex-boyfriend)?”, to which she replied “no”.
On Tuesday, Mr Cobbe read a statement from a friend of the complainant. She said the alleged victim was sitting on a bed during the early hours of the morning when she told her: “He’s raped me, he’s raped me.”
Gravell was interviewed by police about this incident more than 20 years later, in August 2022. During that first interview, he answered “no comment” to questions put to him by police officers. In October of that year, he voluntarily attended a further interview where he explained that he had been advised by his legal representative to previously answer “no comment”, but on this occasion he was represented by another solicitor.
Asked about the incident in January 2002, Gravell told police: “At no point did she (the complainant) say she didn’t want to have sex.” He added it was his opinion that she “was not happy with rumours at the time that we had slept together” and that he had seen her a “handful of times” since the incident, including once at a wedding.
“I don’t remember speaking to her at the wedding but she was there,” he said. He also questioned why someone would want to attend a wedding knowing that a man who had raped them would be in attendance.
Of the night in question, Gravell told police: “It was 22 years ago so I don’t remember everything but I remember we slept together. She was not intoxicated to the point that she was ‘out of it’. At no point did she say what are you doing or anything like that. She was drinking but she was coherent. She was ‘with it’. We both had sex. It was consensual.” Join our WhatsApp news community here for the latest breaking news.
The court has also heard previously from a second complainant who said she was raped by Gravell in 2005 after they had left a pub together. She told the court she and Gravell had left the Rose and Crown pub in Lammas Street in Carmarthen and walked towards nearby Carmarthen Athletic Club, when they went down an alleyway. She said the defendant grabbed her arm and that she tried to get away from him but “he was stronger than me; I tried my best”.
The court heard the defendant started having sex with the alleged victim while she had her back against the wall and that she mouthed ‘help’ to a passer-by. She also said she tried to put her head up when they walked past a window of the rugby club so that someone in the window might see her, but claims Gravell pushed it back down so they would not be seen.
Mr Crowther KC, defending, asked the alleged victim how this “crucial piece of information” about a potential witness to the alleged rape only came to light last week and questioned her about how she had failed to mention this. The alleged victim says she had no way of knowing who the woman was but Mr Crowther KC insisted that was for the police to find out and not her. He said: “You didn’t even give the police a chance” when talking about locating the mentioned witness.
On Tuesday, statements were read to the court by friends of the complainant. One of them described how the alleged victim said she was “dragged across the car park” where Gravell “forced himself” on her.
One friend said how the complainant had pointed out Gravell to her following the incident, and how she later saw a Wales Online article in 2016 detailing how Gravell was standing trial for rape (for which he was acquitted). She in turn sent a link to the article to the complainant with the message “what a w*****”, later telling her to contact the police about what she claimed had happened to her.
The court also heard details of a police interview Gravell gave in March 2016 in relation to this incident, which happened on June 18, 2005. He said he remembered meeting the complainant and that they walked together holding hands but he did not pull her along. He said they had consensual sex near Carmarthen Athletic Club.
It was Gravell’s claim that the pair had consensual sex “from behind” outside the rugby, and not with the woman’s back against the wall as she had claimed.
Gravell said during interview that the accusation that he dragged the complainant along a car park in the centre of Carmarthen is “laughable”. He also told officers in a later interview that he had received a friend request from the complainant on Facebook.
The third complainant Gravell is accused of raping had been on a night out with her sister in February 2022 when she went to bars in Carmarthen. The jury heard she woke up alone in her bed, she had been sick and felt very unwell. Mr Cobbe told the jury she hadn’t felt right “down there” and became aware of a burning sensation so arranged to take the morning after pill.
On Tuesday, a police interview given by Gravell to police following his arrest in February 2022 was read to the court. Gravell told officers that he met the woman in Carmarthen and that they left town together in a taxi, arriving at her home a short time later.
He said a friend of his, Ieuan Davies, made contact with him and it was agreed that he too could come over to the house with another woman. Gravell said he and the complainant went upstairs and she performed oral sex on him. At this point he said Mr Davies entered the room and he shouted “Ieuan, get out!”.
Gravell said Mr Davies came upstairs on two or three separate occasions in an attempt to get him to come downstairs, but Gravell said he stayed in the room with the complainant and had consensual sex. He claims she ejaculated on a black top that he was wearing. “She was enjoying it,” he told police.
He later went into a spare room to sleep, he told officers, before waking at around 5am and returning to the room where the complainant was sleeping. He claims she woke up and they had sex again, during which he told police he ejaculated after around 10 minutes.
He then said he woke up and left the property at around 7.30am, went to his mother’s house and later went to work. Mr Davies was questioned by police and initially said he could not remember going to the complainant’s house to see Gravell, but later said he had been there, telling police he was “howling” having been drinking at home all day watching rugby.
Gravell told police when questioned: “Everything was totally consensual, which is why I’m absolutely shocked why I’m here (in the police station being interviewed).” He added: “This is a complete waste of time. I have been pulled in here for nothing.” When asked if he had given the complainant any sort of medication or drugs, Gravell replied “no”. He was also asked if he could have caused the woman any injuries. He replied “no, not to my knowledge”, adding again that “everything was consensual”.
The alleged victim told police that she thought she had been spiked. When this was put to Gravell in interview, he replied by saying he would “categorically not spike anyone, not in a million years”. Gravell was also asked about bruising the complainant had which she said appeared on the night/morning in question. The defendant said that he didn’t “do anything forceful”.
Gravell denies all charges against him and the trial is set to resume on Wednesday morning, when the defendant is due to give evidence in court.