A 60-year-old Forest of Dean district councillor has gone on trial accused of raping a woman seven years ago.

Prosecutor James Tucker told Gloucester Crown Court last Friday that Independent councillor Ian Whitburn’s public persona was of a ‘very sociable and good natured’ man – but his behaviour towards one woman, whom he first met in 2014, was very different.

Mr Whitburn, of Newland Street, Coleford, who was recently re-elected to his third term as a councillor for Coleford on the district council, denies all four rape charges against him.

They are alleged to have occurred between October 2015 and August the following year.

His defence is that sex with the woman was consensual on each occasion.

“She states that his anger would often become ‘uncontrollable’ and he ‘lost the plot’ on October 30th 2015 when he went ‘mental’ at her,” said the barrister.

“He was said to be enraged after she had belittled him. He grabbed her around her throat and scared her. He forced her down on the bed and allegedly forced himself on her. He knew she wasn’t consenting because she told him ‘no’.

“She tried hard physically to push him away, but she soon realised he was going to have sex anyway, regardless of her giving him consent or not. Mr Whitburn is said to have apologised to the woman a few days later.

“They met up again on Good Friday, March 25, 2016 when Mr Whitburn is alleged to have forced himself on the woman and had anal sex with her without consent, followed by vaginal sex, also without consent. This is rape on both counts. She told him ‘no’ at the outset and he responded, ‘you always say no’.

“On April 9, 2016 they met up in a pub and afterwards went back to her home, where again he had become angry and is alleged to have forced her to have sex with him and he told her he wanted to see her cry.

“They had another falling out over a debt owed to her on August 23, 2016, when during the heated discussion he pulled at her hair and is alleged forced himself into her mouth. This is oral rape. Mr Whitburn is said to have apologised to her a few days later.”

The court heard that in 2019 the woman reported the incidents to the police and Mr Whitburn was subsequently interviewed by officers.

Peter Binder, defending, told the jury that Mr Whitburn’s defence is that sex with the woman was consensual on all occasions.