Musician cleared of raping nonbinary date

Emily Pennink, Press Association Old Bailey Correspondent

A Welsh musician has been cleared of raping his New Year’s Eve date after asserting he was the “guy” in their nonbinary relationship.

Sab Cox, 26, went by the name of Sabrina and identified as nonbinary at the time he was accused of raping a nonbinary partner, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Cox, of Llansamlet in Swansea, south Wales, had asserted their sex was consensual and was cleared of rape by a jury on Tuesday afternoon.

He became emotional in the dock as the jury delivered its not guilty verdict after less than two hours in deliberations.

The court had heard how Mr Cox, who now uses male pronouns, had met a nonbinary person on the dating app Bumble, the court had heard.

He had travelled from Birmingham to celebrate the New Year with them at a bar in Islington, north London.

Prosecutor Simon Ward had told jurors that things became a “bit tense” on the bus ride back to the complainant’s bedsit.

Mr Cox was said to have taken “exception” to the way someone was looking at his date and punched a window.

The complainant said: “Apparently somebody was looking at me and they (Mr Cox) got angry and punched the window of the bus.

“We are both nonbinary, so gender did not come into it.

“They said ‘I see myself as a guy and you’re a girl and I have to protect you’.

“I was really confused, like I don’t know what you mean.”

When they got back to the bedsit, Mr Cox initiated sex with the complainant, the court was told.

Police were called after Mr Cox jumped on the tracks while on the phone to the complainant at Drayton railway station, jurors heard.

In police interview and in his evidence to the court, Mr Cox maintained the sex was consensual.

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