Ex-Spandau Ballet singer Ross Wild found guilty of rape
The former lead singer of Spandau Ballet was found guilty of raping one woman and attempting to rape another.
Ross Davidson, 37, faces jail after jurors at Wood Green Crown Court heard the Aberdeen-born musical theater actor, aspiring songwriter and singer carried out the attacks because he thought he could have “sex on demand”.
The singer, who uses the stage name Ross Wild, starred in the West End musical based on Queen. We will Rock You, and in 2018, she performed as the singer of 1980s favorite Spandau Ballet.
Davidson, of Finchley, north London, pleaded not guilty to the rape of a woman in London in March 2015, as well as the attempted rape and sexual assault of another woman in Thailand in December 2019, saying his actions were consensual.
Jurors on Wednesday found him guilty on all charges after deliberating for more than 11 hours.
Davidson previously admitted to the charge of voyeurism against the woman in Thailand in December 2019, after the video he secretly shot while she was sleeping was found on his mobile phone.
Prosecutor Richard Hearnden said Davidson was thought of as “a bit of a sex symbol” but the two women “had a much darker side that they didn’t realize, at least at first”.
He had success, musical talent and was seen as “attractive and charismatic”, but “because Ross Davidson expects sex on demand, he will resort to rape and sexual assault if he is not given what he thinks he deserves,” Mr Hearnden said.
Davidson, who met women on the Tinder dating app, stated that all the sex he had was consensual.
She described herself as “sex positive” and told the court it was about “open dialogue, open-mindedness about people’s preferences, just openness to trying different sexual desires”.
The rape victim told the jury Davidson attacked her while she was asleep in her bed and she felt “helpless” and “afraid to react”.
Before attacking her, Davidson said he “liked the idea of having sex with a mannequin, with someone who was helpless, with someone who wasn’t moving.”
Jurors also heard he put a sex collar and ankle cuffs on her for about 20 minutes without her consent.
This left her “confused” and “in a state of shock”, but she said she took them off when he asked.
In court, Davidson said all these assault and sex collar allegations were “complete lies.”
Another woman said she woke up in a hotel room in Thailand to find Davidson trying to have sex without her permission or a condom.
When he calmly talked him out of raping her, Davidson recalled saying, “thanks for being calm about this.”
This attempted rape occurred after Davidson and the woman had drunken sex the night before.
The woman continued to stay with him that night, which he described as “sad but fair”, before spending time together at the beach and on a sightseeing trip the next day.
Detectives tracked down Davidson after finding cellphone video showing him being fondled in a Thai hotel bedroom while he was snoring, “asleep, motionless and unresponsive” and “at least half-naked,” the prosecutor’s office said.
He didn’t know the video existed until police told him in 2023.
In her statement, the woman vehemently denied Davidson’s suggestion that she allowed him to touch her while she was asleep, telling the jury: “Why would I want a man to touch me when I was unconscious?”
In the police interview, Davidson described a whirlwind romance with the woman in Thailand in which they had consensual sex, and talked about their “quirks and fantasies, very normal fantasies”.
He admitted the charge of voyeurism in relation to the video but denied sexual assault in relation to the same incident.
Davidson said he made the video for “selfish reasons, for sexual gratification” and that he “had permission to touch her but not permission to film.”
He later became emotional and told the jury: “I wish I had never done this.”
Another hearing will be held in the same court on February 4, where the date of sentencing is expected to be discussed.
