A Brighton sex therapist charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in the toilets of the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove was “a man of integrity”, a jury was told today.
Nick Gully, 48, had had a troubled youth but used his recovery from addiction to help others, his barrister Beverley Cherrill, told the jury at Hove Crown Court.
Gully, of Eley Crescent, Rottingdean, admitted having sexual contact with someone who appeared to be old enough during what seemed to be “an easy pick up”, she said.
And she added: “I doubt that any one of you will be able to look at Mr Gully without feeling some disgust.”
But Miss Cherrill urged the jury not to judge his morals. Instead they had to reach a verdict – beyond reasonable doubt – based on the evidence about whether he had broken the law.
“There is sexual contact,” she said. “That is accepted. But he isn’t charged with being amoral. He is not charged with grooming a child. He is accused of rape – of having sex without consent.”
And she reminded the jury that “an independent prosecution witness thought (the boy) was 16 – just as Mr Gully did”.
Referring to the toilets at the King Alfred, on Hove seafront, where Mr Gully was about to take a meditation class, she said: “Mr Gully walks in. What does (the boy) do who said Mr Gully was making him so uncomfortable? He went into a cubicle.
“Why not walk out? What does it look like to Mr Gully? Why go into a cubicle instead of leaving after he (the boy) has been touched?
“Perhaps (the boy’s) interest was piqued by Mr Gully’s interest in him.”
Afterwards, she said, the boy may have felt shame as he waited for his mother to pick him up.
Miss Cherrill said: “What did Mr Gully do? He just carried on as normal in a place where he was widely known. He’s supposed to have just raped him!”
Had he done so, he would have been risking everything, Miss Cherrill said, when he could so easily just hook up with someone using an app such as Grindr.
She said: “This was an easy pick up. It was a nice way to spend 10 minutes before he had a shower.”
Amy Packham, prosecuting, said: “There are a lot of people who think very highly of Mr Gully – personally and professionally. He has helped a lot of people. That is a side of him.
“On the surface Nicholas Gully is the loving father and respectable professional that you have heard so much about.”
‘A nice way to spend ten minutes before a shower’?
Wow. And whether the boy looked 14 or 16 a
Man who is a lot older and a psychologist counsellor should be able to ask for consent.
The question of consent is for the jury to decide, not you.
At 14 any ‘consent’ is moot as the child is below the age of consent as well as majority.
ths guy gully was leaving dodgy notes on my car, referring to me (whio he didn’t even know) as his “little puppy dog”. He`s just strange. I did some work for him, years ago and he stitched me up, refused to pay me. I had to sue him eventually.