Ex British ice-skating champion accused of raping a girl in 1995
A former British ice-skating champion was supported by members of Team GB's Winter Olympics squad in court today as he faced a charge of raping a girl in his car.
Philip Askew denied sexually assaulting the victim in 1995 when he was 21 years old and a star skater who coached at an ice rink.
Team GB ice-skaters Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland sat in the public gallery to watch the 44-year-old face the trial after their recent competing in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. According to her biography Askew was Coomes first ice-skating coach.
Team GB ice-skaters Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes (foreground) and Philip Askew (at the back) with an unidentified woman outside Reading Crown Court
A jury heard how the victim allegedly documented the rape in her diary which was discovered by her sister and friend when they were snooping around in her bedroom.
The sister of the victim then stormed downstairs and told the family that her sister 'was no longer a virgin'. The court had previously been told how the diary had since been destroyed.
In the witness box at Reading Crown Court today the victim's sister said: 'I was only eight at the time but I could read some of it and my friend read aloud. It was under a bunch of clothes in her cupboard.
'We sat on her bed and she read it. I remember she wrote about being in Philip's car and she was nervous about where they were going.
'The next thing I remember was him putting his fingers in her and her saying how much it hurt but that he said it would help it hurt less.
Philip Askew denied sexually assaulting the victim in 1995 when he was 21 years old and a star skater who coached at an ice rink
'Then she said 'no' as she was scared and that she didn't want it to happen. She wrote that he took her clothes off and that when he lay on top of her, he was really heavy and she struggled to breathe. She wanted to scream but was very quiet.'
The jury then heard what the sister did next as she discovered what had allegedly happened to the victim when Askew had picked her up in his car on one occasion.
She told the court: 'I didn't know what to do but I knew I had to tell someone. My dad and stepmother were downstairs, I didn't know what to do.
'I ran downstairs and shouted really quickly that she's not a virgin. I didn't think they heard me, so I ran downstairs again and did it again.
'My stepmother came upstairs and comforted me on my bed and told me that I had done the right thing. She took the diary off me and gave it to my dad.'
The court was then told how a meeting was set up between the family, management of the ice rink where Askew coached and the defendant.
Defence barrister Sarah Elliot QC asked the sister if the pair of them continued to skate at the ice rink after the meeting, and this was confirmed.
Askew won gold on consecutive years at the British Figure Skating Championships in 1996 and 1997 with Marika Humphreys coming in the top 20 in those year at the European Ice Championships.
Coomes and Buckland sat in the courtroom in Reading, Berks., just weeks after competing at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where they came 11th in the Figure Skating competition.
Philip Askew, now from Nottinghamshire, denies one charge of raping a girl under the age of 16 years and the trial continues.