Gay man comes out to deny moorland camper van sex assault
A gay man who had hidden his homosexuality to police has denied allegations of a sexual assult in a camper van on Baildon Moor, near Bradford, the Telegraph and Argus paper reports.
Peter Macmillan-Collins, 52, appeared at Bradford Crown Court yesterday to deny the charges.
The defendant said he had performed a sex act on a 23 year old man who had been spending the night in his camper van along with two other men, but believed the man had consented to the act.
He had told police the four had been drinking heavily, and said: “I remember feeling an arm around me. I must admit, I felt comfortable about it.”
At the trial, Mr Macmillan-Collins said he “went with the flow”, believing the younger man to have consented.
He awoke the following morning to find the man attacking him.
Mr Macmillan-Collins said: “I had a gut feeling that he had regretted what had happened. He was shouting at me, things like ‘where am I? What is happening? what have you done?’
“I was absolutely dazed being woken up like that. It was hard to take in.”
He said the alleged victim threatened to throw a road sign through the window of the camper van before the police arrived.
Mr Macmillan-Collins admitted he had told police he was straight on two subsequent occasions. He said his family were “very homophobic”.
He added: “I find it incredibly hard to talk about what I am”.
“I felt my family would find out. It is horrible being ‘in the closet’ as they say.”
When DNA from the younger man was discovered on him, Mr Macmillan-Collins was forced to come out, and told the court: “I almost found a kind of release that it was found out that way. I had to tell somebody.”
