Breaking news: “God’s gift to women” Cricketer Alex Hepburn loses challenge to rape conviction

Cricketer Alex Hepburn, jailed for raping a sleeping woman in his team-mate’s bedroom, has lost his Court of Appeal bid to have his conviction overturned.

Hepburn, 24, was jailed for five years in April last year for the attack on a “dozing” woman in his team-mate’s bedroom, during the first night of a sexual conquest competition he helped set up on a WhatsApp group.

A jury had found Hepburn guilty of oral rape at a retrial earlier that month but cleared him of a further count of rape relating to the same victim.

At the trial, the Australian-born former Worcestershire all-rounder was said by the prosecution to have been “fired up” by the contest to sleep with the most women, before carrying out the rape at his flat in Portland Street, Worcester, on April 1 2017.

At a hearing, where Hepburn is challenging his conviction, three senior judges, including the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, were told that messages presented to the jury did not show that Hepburn was willing to have sex with a woman without consent.