The Australia-born cricketer, who plied his trade for Worcestershire was sentenced to jail for five years in 2019. The incident actually took place in 2017 when Alex Hepburn was convicted for raping a woman in his teammates’ room. Now, he is all set to appeal against the sentence.
His appeal will be heard on Thursday by Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett. Prosecutors said the former Worcestershire all-rounder had been “fired up” by a contest to sleep with the most women, before carrying out the rape at his flat in Worcester, central England, in April 2017.
Alex Hepburn jailed for rape
Meanwhile, Judge Jim Tindal, jailing Hepburn at Hereford Crown Court, said the “immature” cricketer and a former teammate had agreed a “pathetic sexist game to collect as many sexual encounters as possible”.
Throughout the trial, the lawyer supporting the cricketer had expressed deep concern on her client’s behalf. She said, “It demeaned women and trivialized rape — a word you personally threw around lightly. Only now do you realize how serious rape is.”
The victim of the episode was considered to be very ‘brave’ by the judge. She reported the assault committed by the cricketer as “evil” and “heinous crime”.
A panel had found Hepburn guilty of oral rape at a re-trial earlier in the month but cleared him of a further count of rape relating to the same victim. However, it seems like Alex Hepburn has a tough hurdle ahead to come out of the 5-year sentence.
Spilling the beans, the victim revealed that she thought she was engaging in a sexual encounter with Hepburn’s then county teammate Joe Clarke. However, she hesitated to reveal her identity for personal and security reasons.
