Sam Evans was warned he faces an ‘inevitable substantial custodial sentence’ (Picture: Plymouth Live/BPM Media)
An Army Commando who subjected a woman to a brutal and degrading sex attack hours after meeting for the first time during a night out is facing years behind bars.
Sam Evans, 28, a Corporal in 29 Commando, Royal Artillery Regiment, based in Plymouth, urinated and spat on his victim, telling her during the ordeal: ‘I love it when you keep telling me to stop.’
He was found guilty of rape, two counts of sexual assault, intentional strangulation and ABH following a trial at the port city’s crown court.
Jurors heard the pair swapped messages after connecting on a dating app but only met in person for the first time in the early hours of July 3 last year.
The woman told them she did not remember much from the moment she left a Plymouth nightclub until she ‘came around’ on a bed in Evans’s flat.
She later told police he repeatedly assaulted her – both physically and sexually – during a ‘never-ending’ cycle of violence.
Jurors heard Evans ordered her to take off her jeans and underwear ‘or it’s going to be so much worse’ before raping and choking her.
He also forced a sex toy on the woman, urinated on her and slapped her around the face and head.
Evans urinated and spat on his victim during the attack (Picture: Plymouth Live/BPM Media)
She told the police: ‘He called me a whore and spat in my face and eyes. It was never-ending. It just went on and on and on. I just wanted it to end.
‘I said, “just get it over with”, and he kept laughing it off. He had his hands on my throat again.
‘He said to me, “tell me no again”. I just kept saying, “stop”. He said, “I like it when you keep telling me stop – I like it when you say no”.’
When she screamed out loud in a bid to make him stop, the court heard Evans warned ‘don’t try that again’.
He then told her: ‘Tell me how glad you are that you met me. I want you to say it.
‘I bet you wish you never met me now.’
It was only when a door opened in the flats that he finally stopped and told her ‘you’re so lucky there are people here’.
Jurors heard Evans told the woman ‘you have no idea how lucky you are’ (Picture: Plymouth Live/BPM Media)
She asked if she could go for a cigarette even though she didn’t smoke, hoping it would stop the abuse.
As they smoked on his balcony, the woman said Evans told her: ‘I can tell you’ve never been through something like that before… I feel sorry for you because I’ve gone really hard on you. I know I’ve gone too far.’
The woman told Evans her mum would be worried if she didn’t go home and would call police if she could not get through to her phone.
She said he replied: ‘You’re not going home yet… you have no idea how lucky you are – that would have been so much worse, you’re so lucky that there’s people here.
‘You’ve got off pretty lightly to be fair.’
The woman told police: ‘I was thinking I don’t really know how much worse that could’ve been. That was pretty bad to me. What’s the step up from that? That to me is almost as bad as it could be.’
Evans drove her home and was arrested days later after the woman’s mum persuaded her to go to the hospital and call the police.
He claimed the victim saw his uniform hanging on his bedroom door and told him she likes ‘a strong dominant man’.
And he told Plymouth Crown Court that the woman had asked him to get out a sex toy in his room and used it on herself.
He insisted his actions had been ‘playful and softly done’ and said she wanted him to urinate over her but at no point did he do anything that ‘was rape or sexual assault’.
However, he was convicted on majority verdicts after nearly 13 hours of deliberations.
He was cleared of a second count of rape as well as a further charge of assault by penetration.
As the verdicts were read out there were gasps from Evans’s friends and family in the public gallery. He was seen to place his hands over his mouth and nose, bending over in the dock.
Judge Robert Linford warned Evans he faces an ‘inevitable substantial custodial sentence’ and remanded him into custody ahead of sentencing on April 3.