Ex-JLS pop star Oritse Williams denies he is a 'sexual predator'
Ex-JLS pop star Oritse Williams told a jury he is not a “sexual predator” as he denied assaulting a woman at a Wolverhampton hotel.
The singer told jurors he “absolutely” did not rape the woman at the city’s Ramada Park Hall Hotel after a solo gig at Gorgeous Nightclub in the early hours of the morning.
He denied hustling the “excitable and very loud” woman and her two friends out of the club and to his hotel room after they caught his attention with their “raunchy” dance routines.
His barrister Mr Mark Cotter put it to him: “Did you rape the woman?” Williams, who rose to fame with the boyband on ITV’s The X Factor in 2008, replied: “Absolutely not.”
Mr Cotter added: “Were you being a sexual predator?” Williams replied: “Not at all, no way.”
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The father-of-one was with long-term friend and tour manager Jamien Nagadhana promoting his debut single Waterline at the club in December 2016.
He spotted the women after they came to the VIP section and asked for drinks, with the singer inviting the trio to enjoy the free alcohol.
Conversations became “flirtatious” before the women began dancing provocatively in front of him, Williams told jurors.
Giving evidence at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday, the defendant said: “It did make me excited, I was loving it.”
Soon after the alleged victim said she wanted to go to his hotel room, he said.
All three women shared a taxi with Williams and 32-year-old Nagadhana to the Park Drive hotel but one went home after throwing up during the journey, he recalled.
Williams, who admitted he is “easily affected” by alcohol, said: “[The alleged victim] pulled me out of the club, out of the VIP. She has hold of my hand and I follow.
“Sex was a possibility but only if she was interested.”
The singer claimed the remaining two “giggly” women soon left his hotel room but the alleged victim returned alone and said she wanted to “spend the night” together.
The woman put her arms around his neck and kissed him at the door, with the pair then getting intimate on the bed – but they were allegedly forced to stop because of the effects of alcohol on him.
Williams, of Croydon, South London, denies rape and Nagadhana, of Hounslow, West London, denies two counts of sexual assault on December 2, 2016.
The trial continues.
