Former teacher on trial accused of raping three women – live updates

A former teacher and hotel manager is on trial accused of raping three women over a 20-year period. Daniel Gravell is alleged to have indecently assaulted and raped a woman in 2001, to have raped a second woman in 2005, and to have raped a third woman in 2021.

The 44-year-old defendant denies the allegations and is on trial at Swansea Crown Court.

It is the prosecution case that the first alleged rape happened at Gravell’s home in Johnston near Carmarthen in 2001 after the defendant and the woman met on a night out. The court was told that the pair initially engaged in consensual kissing but when the woman told Gravell she was on her period he “yanked out” her tampon, pinned her down, and raped her.

The second alleged rape is said to have happened in 2005. Jurors were told that Gravell took the complainant to a “secluded spot” behind Carmarthen Athletic rugby club and attacked her.

The third allegation of rape involves a woman who Gravell met on social media in 2021. It is the prosecution case that defendant drove the woman to the Baltic Hotel in Carmarthenshire which Gravell was managing at the time but which he told the woman he owned. The court was told that after showing her around the hotel, the defendant took the woman to one of the rooms, locked the door, and raped her.

It is Gravell’s case that the 2001 incident “simply never happened” while the 2005 and 2021 incidents were consensual sexual encounters.

On Tuesday the jury heard evidence from the alleged victim of the 2001 incident. She told the court how she met the defendant in Carmarthen town centre before going back to his home in nearby Johnstown.

The complainant said Gravell and her were kissing consensually on his bed when she told him she was on her period. Jurors heard that at that point “things changed” and Gravell got on top of her before “ripping out” her tampon and raping her.

The woman told the jury that the defendant gave her a sexually transmitted disease, and that on a subsequent occasion when she saw him out in Carmarthen she decided to confront him about it. she told the jury Gravell “laughed in my face” before she had the chance to get the words out and that he “said something like ‘I gave you a little present’”.

Daniel Gravell, of Porth Y Plas, Johnstown, Carmarthen, denies three counts of rape and one count of indecent assault, and the trial – before Judge Paul Thomas KC – is expected to last two weeks.

You can follow today’s evidence in our live blog below: