A former teacher and restaurant manager is on trial accused of raping three women.
Daniel Gravell is alleged to have raped and indecently assaulted a woman in 2001, to have raped a different woman in 2005, and to have raped a third woman in 2021.
The defendant denies the allegations, and is on trial at Swansea Crown Court.
Opening the case for the prosecution, barrister Matthew Cobbe told the jury that the first alleged rape is said to have happened at the defendant’s home address in Johnston near Carmarthen in 2001 after Gravell and the woman met on a night out. He said the pair initially engaged in consensual kissing but when the woman told Gravell she was on her period he “yanked out” her tampon, pinned her down, and raped her.
The barrister said the second alleged rape is said to have happened in 2005 when Gravell pulled the complainant to a “secluded spot” behind Carmarthen Athletic rugby club and raped her.
The court heard that the third allegation of rape involves a woman who Gravell met on social media in 2021. The barrister said the pair arranged to meet for a coffee, and the defendant drove her to the Baltic Hotel in Carmarthenshire which Gravell was managing at the time but which he told the woman he owned.
The jury was told the defendant showed the woman around the hotel and “seemed to be showing off” before he took her to one of the rooms, locked the door, and raped her. The prosecution barrister said the woman would later recall the “horrible noises” Gravell was making during the alleged incident, and that afterwards she went to the hotel room’s en suite bathroom to vomit.
The court heard that it is Gravell’s case that the 2001 incident “simply never happened” while the 2005 and 2021 incidents were consensual sexual encounters.
Daniel Gravell, aged 44, of Porth Y Plas, Johnstown, Carmarthen, denies three counts of rape and one count of indecent assault, and the trial is expected to last two weeks.
See our coverage from the first day of the trial below.
