Doug Richard trial: Ex-Dragons’ Den star was ‘looking for 50 Shades of Grey experience’ on sugar daddy website
Source: Mirror.co.uk.
USA – Richard, 57, a millionaire businessman, took to the witness stand at the Old Bailey where he is accused of paying a 13-year-old girl for sex after meeting her online.
Former Dragons’ Den star Doug Richard told a jury he was ‘looking for a 50 Shades of Grey experience’ when he met a teenage girl for sex after talking to her on a ‘sugar daddy website’.
The millionaire businessman took to the witness stand at the Old Bailey where he is accused of paying a 13-year-old girl – who was 5ft tall and weighed less than six stone – for sex after first meeting her online.
The 57-year-old denies all charges against him. He admits sexual activity did occur with the child but claims he believed she was at least 16 at the time.
The technology entrepreneur insists any money that changed hands was for travel expenses and not to secure the sexual services of the schoolgirl, or a 15-year-old friend she travelled with to meet Richard in central London.
The married dad-of-three met the 13-year-old through a free-to-join American website, called ‘Seeking Arrangements’, where she had advertised herself as a ‘sugar baby’ after claiming to be at least 18.
Richard told the court: “I was looking for roleplaying and fantasy relationships involving dominance and submission.
“I get my excitement in part by having internet chat with young women.
A jury heard Richard, who starred in two series of the BBC business programme, used the screen name ‘Dominant’ and described himself as a ‘sugar daddy’ after joining the site.
Richard told the court he joined the site four years before meeting the 13-year-old and used it almost every day, meeting women twice a month in the ‘hope’ of having sex.
He said he was attracted to the teenager’s profile, who he believed to have been 18, because she described herself as ‘submissive’.
He said: “I was on Seeking Arrangements because I was interested in sexual role play relationships and that’s what caught my eye.
“It was 50 Shades of Grey type stuff.”
The court heard the pair chatted in December 2014, and the girl claimed to be a 17-year-old student.
Richard then asked her to send him naked photos, adding: “Less clothing more revealing positions.”
After she sent a snap, Richard replied: “Think of that as your first task for your daddy. Get it wrong and I will just have to spank you.”
He told jurors after seeing a full frontal nude photo: “I thought I was looking at a naked 17-year-old.
The court heard Richard, a former advisor to David Cameron , then told her to adopt a submissive pose so she was ‘helpless and exposed’ and said he wanted to ‘paddle her a*** until its bright red’.
Richard later used PayPal to transfer £120 to buy train tickets for her and her friend to travel from their home town of Norwich to London on 2 January last year, it is claimed.
Richard allegedly took the girls to a coffee shop near Liverpool Street train station before he said: ‘Let’s go somewhere private’.
Once back at the Bishopsgate apartment, the former reality TV star asked the older girl if she wanted to be his slave, jurors were told.
The court heard that when she refused and told him she was not ‘into sex’ he kissed her using his tongue, but she recoiled and thought it was ‘horrible and smokey’.
Richard then ordered the younger girl to strip and remove his own clothing, it was said.
The 13-year-old’s friend previously told the court she refused Richard’s invitation to watch, but she could hear the bed rocking and the younger girl saying it hurt and she couldn’t do it before walking in to find her performing another sex act.
The court heard Richard, who has joint British and American citizenship, later transferred another £120 using PayPal after once again asking the older girl if she was interested in having sex with him.
Police were called after her mother noticed the earlier transfer and Richard was arrested at the Edwardian Lord Milner Hotel, in central London.
Richard, of Myddelton Square, Islington, north London, denies three counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and a charge of paying for sexual services of a child.
The trial continues.
See nore and larger photo’s: www.mirror.co.uk.
