What Alex Hepburn's text messages reveal about the night he raped a sleeping woman.

In 2017, Alex Hepburn decided to play a game with his friends. A game in which he had to sleep with as many women as possible; these women became conquests, to be logged and rated.

“Every freshie has to be put into the chat with this detail (name, age, black or white, rate out of 10, yor [sic] performance out of 10, condom or no),” the Australian-born cricketer wrote in a WhatsApp message.

Four days later, he was under arrest.

In April of this year, the ex-Worcestershire county was found guilty of one count of oral rape at the Worcester Crown Court in the UK, following a retrial. A jury found that the 23-year-old had raped a sleeping woman at a party in April 2017, but cleared him of a second count of rape involving the same victim.

He has been sentenced to five years prison.

The woman told police she had consensual sex with Hepburn’s then-teammate, Joe Clarke, earlier in the evening before falling asleep. Clarke had passed out in the bathroom after the encounter. The woman said she later woke to find a man, whom she believed to be Clarke, engaging in a sex act with her in the dimly lit room. She only realised it was Hepburn when he spoke.

Hepburn insisted in court that the act was “consensual”, but his WhatsApp messages appear to tell a different story.

WhatsApp messages reveal game

After the verdict was delivered, WhatsApp messages ruled inadmissible during a pre-trial hearing were released. The texts, recovered by police from mobile phone records, revealed the sick sexual conquests game Hepburn had devised with his friends prior to the assault.

In one message, Hepburn described himself and teammate Joe Clarke as a “pair of tens” who “should be banging models”.

In another message not heard by the jury Hepburn boasted: “Got to understand that Hepperdawg is a horny c*** and without you keeping my head straight just goes and does rogue things”.

Social media conversations which prosecutors claimed may have been “scores” from a previous sexual conquest competition were also kept from the jury panel. A message written by Hepburn said: “Oi last night was my 60th. Want 80 by the end of Worcs”. Clarke responded: “I reckon I’m about 75. I want 20 more this summer. Tough ask but reckon we have got it in us”.

The messages also included a reference to a "Tinder bird" which dismissed her as "not great" but added "a stat's a stat hahaha".

The rules of the game by Hepburn stipulated that it would end with a "shaggers week", and "punishment" for the person with the lowest score. Their penalty? Buying dinner at a restaurant.

Jurors did hear details of messages sent by Hepburn in the week of the night out which landed him in court - in which he apparently referred to threesomes involving Clarke: "Clarkey you only won last year because the hepperdawg let ya have three balls with him," Hepburn wrote. "Always been me dragging the birds back. You raping them."

The word itself - 'raping' - was typed only a few days before Hepburn's arrest, and was referred to by the presiding judge in sentencing.

Judge Jim Tindal said: "It demeaned women and trivialised rape — a word you personally threw around lightly. Only now do you realise how serious rape is.

"You thought you were God’s gift to women, you treated the victim like a piece of meat, not another human being who deserves respect," he added.