This story is a continuation of Rugby Rumble. I have tried to make it followable if you've not read Rugby Rumble but would suggest you read Rugby Rumble first before reading this story. It picks up a year or so and features most of the main characters .



"I plead not guilty!" Joe said, puffing his chest out in a defiant gesture, and staring at the clerk, who jotted down the answer and sat back down.

Joe drew his eye across the jury, some meeting his gaze, others dropping their eyes to their laps as his eyes travelled the row of men and women there to judge his fate. The judge resplendent in wig and gown banged his gavel to hush the whispers from the public gallery at Joe's denial

"Order! Order! I shall now call the prosecution to outline its case" he said, his voice raised loud, yet as worn and as gravely as the lines on his face would have suggested it would be. He peered through his half spectacles at the rugby player before him, the suit barely disguising the huge frame of the player, the seams of the jacket struggling and bursting, keeping in the packed muscle beneath. A muscled neck supported a clippered hair style, the dark bristles of stubble on his cheeks, neatly shaped.

The prosecution rose, a distinguished, hard faced, wigged and robed man who left his desk and approached the jury, his gown fluttering out as he raised his hand, pointed at Joe and faced the assembled jury
His voice was low, but rising in pace, volume and authority as he addressed the jury, "The crown will prove that Joe Thomas is guilty of two charges of voyeurism, one charge of sexual coercion," he paused for dramatic effect, swivelling his head to look down his extended arm, pointing like the barrel of a gun at the defiant player, then back to the jury, "And one count of sexual assault!"

The public jury burst into excited and shocked chatter, journalists scribbled furiously into notebooks. Quick non authorised text messages were composed on mobiles hidden from view and sent to news desks, as the judge banged his gavel again. "Order order!"



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Aiden Clarke, boyfriend of Joe.

I first met Joe through Heart Match. He seemed a nice guy. I knew he played for Colehampton Rugby club. His pictures didn't actually show he was a player there, but I knew who he was. Look, I'm not a stalker or anything, I just casually follow rugby and to see his face pop up like that, I recognised him, then just swiped and hoped for the best. No one was more surprised than me when we matched and started to chat. Look at me, I'm hardly in as good shape as him. Yeah I keep trim but he's a mountain. I was in lust straight away. Sorry to be so blunt I just need to make you understand why I felt like I felt.

Sorry, yes I'll get to the point. Excuse me, sorry, If I laugh it's not that I find this funny, I don't, I'm just a bit nervous. I've never been in this situation before, you see.

So we chatted on line. He seemed really nice. Genuine guy, funny too. He's got a really wicked sense of humour. He's so quick witted, and really dry and sarcastic sometimes but it's like he's only kidding; you can tell there's nothing nasty about it. When we met it's even more apparent. You can see the glint in his eye and the way he gets that little dimple on his chin when he smiles. It's really cute and that small scar on his forehead just adds to it. Cute yet dangerous, you know?

Yes I am getting to the crux of the master, yes I know you don't have all day, but I'm trying to paint a picture, it's important you understand what he's like, yeah?

So for the first few weeks we just normal stuff. Meals, a few drinks, a nightclub. It was off season so Joe could be less strict with himself. He's a really good dancer especially for a man his size. You'd think he'd not be great with his frame that large, but he's really good, and I mean seriously good. He'd dance for hours and barely seem tired. I suppose it's because he's an athlete. Around this time it started to get more physical. Do I mean sex? Yes I do but it wasn't like I'd had with other guys, not by the end, anyway. First couple of times it was just vanilla sex.No, I mean, just straight kind of sex, sorry, yes vanilla means traditional sex I suppose.
After a few weeks he took me to a party for one of his team mates birthday. Sam I think it was. He's the club captain. He's lovely, a really nice guy, so is his wife Karen, they both made me feel really welcome. Being gay in the rugby world could be awkward but they both made me feel so welcome. Mark was there too, he's a real character. Insisted he gave me a big hug and said Joe and and I made a nice couple. It was really weird but nice, you know, to feel so accepted. A few others were there Jez, Chris, John, Kevin. Really nice guys.
Yes there is a point to this, bear with me. You see, that night Joe asked me if I wanted to see something special. I said yes. We were in bed just chatting and he reached over to get his iPad. I could see him going onto some site online and scrolling through a video. After a few moments he handed me the iPad with this big goofy grin. I could see the tent in the duvet, he was obviously turned on. He pointed at the screen and said 'get a load of that'. When I looked down there was a video of Sam and Mark on a stage. Both were naked with hardons, I mean erections. These were the people I'd just been at a party with so I was shocked. One minute I'm chatting with Sam and his wife about their garden, and later, he's on the screen, wanking, sorry I mean masturbating while several other of the team mates also nude throwing coloured gunge at them! Most of the people at the party were now on this video and all of them all in the nude. I could tell Joe was loving it. His hand was disappearing under the duvet a lot and he was so turned on by it. Seeing his teammates naked was, is, kind of hot but I wasn't ready for it and the fact they were getting pelted with this gunge stuff was a little weird. The sex with Joe after was more intense. Did I enjoy the sex? Yes. The content of the video? No. I mean it was nice seeing all the rugby guys naked but the gunge was a little strange

Thank you. Yes I could do with a break, you want me to carry on after?

So it must have been a couple of weeks after the video, and we hadn't really mentioned it. Joe didn't offer to show it to me again, and I didn't ask. We kinda just bedded down into the relationship and our jobs. Joe was back in pre season so was at the club a lot, training and conditioning, and I had a few clients to progress. Sorry, yes, no, I should've said, I'm an estate agent, the housing market was good so I was busy.
Anyway I was staying at his over the weekend. I normally stay at mine, I've got my cats, you see, so Joe used to stay at mine for the most part, but he was insistent I came to his. So I did and it was usual, nothing out the ordinary, we ate, watched a movie, had a fuwe had sexual intercourse and afterwards he says why don't I have a bath, relax and he'll get some wine and join me. So in I go, he's got candles around the bath, he's run it and it's really romantic. I get in, the water is warm and I relax. I'm starting to drift away when I hear Joe come in. I thought he'd have the wine and some glasses but he's standing at the side of the bath hands behind his bath. I think he's got the wine there, or flowers, or that's he's going to drop to one knee and get out a ring box or something. Sorry, no I'm not laughing at this, no, it's not funny, it's just telling you all this personal stuff, it's hard, yeah?

So, he only has his shorts on and I can see he's turned on. Then he pulls his hands out from behind him and he's holding a bucket. Next thing I know he's upturning it over me and all this thick blue stuff is pouring over me. He's aiming at my head and he's laughing. It's all over me. It's in my hair over my face. All over my chest and shoulders. It's dripping in the water. Turning the water blue too. He's still laughing.

It was three days after did I find out he had recorded it.



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"So you accept you recorded Mr Clark in a state of undress in your bathroom, without his consent?" The prosecution asked flicking his eyes to the jury to drive home his point that this was a pre-planned breach of law.

"Well yes, but I mean"

"No further questions your honour" the prosecution snapped across Joe who stood in the box brooding

The judge looked up from his papers, dull eyes peering out from hooded lids capped off with wispy eyebrows, "Perhaps we should let the defendant fully answer before we move on shall we?"

The prosecution gave a shallow nod, the body language clear he resented the intervention. He stood back up and hooked his thumbs in the lapel of his gown. "Do go on" he said, sarcasm dripping

Joe cleared his throat, and met the gaze of the prosecution, boring into him. "We often filmed each other. It wasn't usual to ask permission. That kind of kills the passion, if you have to stop and ask if it's ok"

"But you accept consent was not given.."

"No I don't, he knows I had cctv, a ring doorbell and was aware that my property is filmed inside and out"

"But in your bathroom? The one place where privacy prevails". The prosecution turned to the jury, addressing them, not Joe, "the one place you can guarantee privacy" he allowed it to hang in the air.

Several of the jury members eyes flitted from the prosecution to the player, standing resolute in the box, his clipped black hair framing a squared jawed face. His brown eyes flashed with exasperation at the prosecutions line of questioning.

"Your witness has filmed me in the shower, in the bath, getting undressed and asleep in bed on several occasions. He didn't ask for permission. It was accepted that was part of our relationship" Joe fired back, addressing the prosecutor who had left his bench and was standing at the edge of the witness box, a deliberate attempt to infiltrate their space, to become one of them. He spun around, pointing directly at Joe, his voiced raised, shrill.
"Indeed, but he filmed you with his mobile phone infront of you, he didn't resort to concealing the camera above the bath to get the best angle, now did he Mr Thomas?!"

The gasp from the gallery fell away into silence as they craned forward to hear the response, attention rapt

"No, he didn't" Joe said. The silence in court was banished by a wave of hushed but hurried conversation from the gallery.


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"So how long were you dating Mr Clark?" The defence asked, a mild mannered yet strong man in his late 50's the robe and wig adding an air of austerity

"Oh around a year, maybe eighteen months" Joe replied his hands gripping the side of the box as he stood. He stood taller than the two guardsmen, the absurdity of the smaller men controlling the much larger man almost comical

"Could you describe to the court details of your sexual life?"

"Objection your honour!" The prosecution shouted, standing

"Over ruled, it is pertinent to the case" the judge said, wagging his finger in a sit down gesture. "Carry on Mr Archer"

"Thank you my Lord" the defence counsellor replied, bowing his head gently before returning to his client. He gestured with his hands for his client to answer.

"Well as you know I have a kink, it's called gunging, sploshing, it's like slapstick" he said, turning to the jury' "it's harmless fun, just like you see on television"

He turned back to Archer, "I didn't introduce it for a few weeks and yes, I did show him the gunge video with Sam and the team in. It's commercially available and all the guys knew people would see it. And yeah I did get off on showing to him and the incident in the bath was the first time we did gunge. I didn't think recording it would be a big deal, we did that kind of stuff all the time"

"So why suspend the camera above the bath?" Archer asked, leaning in

"My hands were full I had the bucket. It was just easier to prop the camera up on top of the shower rail looking down on the bath"

"And after this first occurrence how did Mr Clark react? Was he so shocked he ended the relationship?"

"No not at all" Joe said glancing at the judge and the clerks at his side taking notes, "we talked about it. He wasn't so much into it, but he let me gunge him a few times. He'd come home and I'd greet with him with a custard pie as soon as he entered or I'd cover us both in natrosol, that's the gunge, while we made love. Once I dropped a trifle in his lap deliberately when we were out at a restaurant. You know accidentally on purpose"

"And these events didn't end your relationship?" Archer asked, his turn to enter the side of the court where the jury sat in two rows

"No, no it didn't"

"Can you elaborate for the court, why it did end?"

"He was so much in debt. About seventy thousand pounds. Something to do with the housing market, he always told me it was good but obviously wasn't. He was behind on his credit cards and had a loan. He changed. Quickly. From a fun loving guy I wanted to be around to a withdrawn quiet and miserable person. He was always going on about money. Asking me to pay off his gambling debts, his loans. It really caused a rift between us. It was that, that ended our relationship," Joe said quietly, his fingers flexing on the rails of the box, the movement causing ripples of muscles to snake up his strong forearms

"So if you had to hazard a guess why Mr Clark has taken many months to place these allegations and is taking the opportunity right now, what would you surmise ?"

"Objection your honour!" The prosecution shouted, rising once more

The judge held up his hand to silence the man, and turned to Archer, "objection upheld, leading the witness to speculate. Rephrase your question"

"Sorry, your honour" Archer said, a deeper bow this time, yielding to the judges authority. He turned back to Joe

"So Mr Clark was, is, financially challenged, and confiding in you the extent, along with the change in his personality brought forth the end of the relationship?" He asked gently.

Joe nodded and quietly said the affirmative for the record.

"And did anything happen to your personal finances around the time of the break up?"

"Yes" said Joe, looking into the faces of the jury, "I'd signed a deal with Teleton clothing, to market their rugby clothing"

"So would it be fair to say Mr Clark was in financial peril, and was putting pressure on you to cover his debts whilst you were signing sponsorship deals?" Archer said raising a quizzical eyebrow towards the jury, "Tell me Mr Thomas, how much was this deal you signed worth?"

Joe's voice was clear, "Just over two hundred and sixty thousand pounds"

The gallery gasped. Archer raised his voice over the hubbub, "No further questions, your honour"


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