Wednesday 5 October 2022 06:18 PM Experts who said 'rape victim' had condition that meant she had sex while ... trends now

An alleged rape victim whose case was dropped because defence lawyers claimed she had an episode of 'sexsomnia' revealed neither of the sleep experts called upon before the trial was cancelled had ever met her in person. 

Jade McCrossen-Nethercott, who says she had never experienced an episode of the condition, was later told by a third expert that sexsomnia doesn't just happen 'one night' but sufferers, who are typically male, tend to have a known history of it. 

The rape allegation by Miss McCrossen-Nethercott was dismissed when the defence argued – in a legal first – that she had the rare sleepwalking condition causing people to engage in sexual activity while asleep.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the case in October 2020, but has now admitted the allegations should have been tested at trial and apologised to her. But because Miss McCrossen-Nethercott's alleged attacker was formally acquitted in court, there is no prospect of the case being reopened. 

Miss McCrossen-Nethercott, who waived her right to anonymity to speak about her case, revealed in a BBC documentary that the case collapsed based on a suggestion she had sexsomnia from experts she had never met. 

She believes it was seized upon by the defence after she made a throwaway comment during her police interview about sleeptalking and sleepwalking as a child. 

'It was only after the defence saw me talking about sleepwalking in that police interview that sleep experts got involved. Neither of those sleep experts saw me in person,' she said in the programme. 

The 30-year-old then paid to see her own private specialist for a third opinion - a doctor who described the suggestion she had sexsomnia as 'exceedingly unusual'. 

Dr Irshaad Ebrahim of the London Sleep Centre, describing sexsomnia, told her: 'It's a type of sleepwalking behaviour. What we do know is that people who have sexsomnia tend to have a history of the sexual behaviour.

'It just doesn't occur one night.

'And the typical person with sexsomnia is a male and who has a track record from his bed partners over a period of time, who will all report that 'he gets me up half way through the night and has vigorous sexual activity with me'.

'So therefore I'm very surprised that you have been labelled as having sexsomnia.'

Miss McCrossen-Nethercott said she felt it had been 'plucked out of thin air' and loosely diagnosed.

Dr Ebrahim asks her: 'The diagnosis of sexsomnia was directed at you? The victim of non-consensual sex?'

When she says 'yes,' he adds: 'So that is in itself the first time I have heard something like this occur. It's usually the perpetrator of the act. So this is exceedingly unusual.'

Miss McCrossen-Nethercott then reiterates in the documentary that she has no previous history of any of her bed partners raising concerns of it in the past and clarifies her last episode of sleepwalking was aged 17 –  adding that she has never had an episode where she has initiated sex from sleep.

'Your history is not typical of someone with sexsomnia,' Dr Ebrahim adds, telling her she falls into the bracket which 20-30% fall into, who have a history of nocturnal behaviours that they outgrow.

Miss McCrossen-Nethercott first reported being raped after she fell asleep fully clothed on a sofa after a party in March 2017. She awoke at 5am half-naked and with the feeling she had been penetrated but with no recollection of what had happened. 

A man on the couch next to her was charged with rape after forensic swabs detected his semen, but he denied the charge. 

She told the documentary when she woke up and confronted the alleged attacker, he said

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