Gay Radio 4 presenter raped New Year party man, court told

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An openly gay BBC Radio 4 presenter drugged and raped a man that he met at a New Years party, a court heard today.

Nigel Wrench, 47, who is a regular presenter of the radio station’s flagship evening news programme PM invited the man back to see his art collection and sit in on his show, the court was told.

The Old Bailey heard that Mr Wrench snorted cocaine with the 26-year-old man and then poured him a glass of champagne, which made him feel “not at all well.”

“In order to get his way with the victim, he drugged him and he raped him and he sexually assaulted him,” said Constance Briscoe for the Crown Prosecution Service.

The jury were told that he suffered from “flashes of darkness” and “periods of blackness,” before finding himself naked on the Mr Wrench’s bed as the PM presenter put a pill into his mouth.

Mr Wrench faces accusations of rape, sexual assault, together with administering the sleeping tablet, Temazepam, with the intention of overpowering his victim in order to have sexual intercourse on the 1st January 2007.

Later that afternoon, the man met a friend to go to a police station to report the alleged crime. When Mr Wrench was arrested he did not answer police questions.

Mr Wrench is well known both within the straight and LGBT community. In 1998 he presented a powerful Radio 4 documentary, Aids and Me about his experiences living with HIV and a later diagnosis of AIDS.

He denies all charges made against him.

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