Queens postgrad threatened to rape 19-year-old in ‘Fifty Shades of Grey-inspired joke’

He told her ‘I want to take you home and abuse you and rape you’


Jack Fitzsimons, a DPhil Student from Queens College, has been sentenced for the assault of 19-year-old Jade Blake after grabbing her neck and threatening to rape her.

He admitted to the charge of assault, but claims that it was a misunderstood joke, inspired by the BDSM sex games of E L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey.

Fitzsimons was handed a conditional discharge for 18 months, with the prospect of being re-sentenced if he commits any further offences during this time.

23-year-old Fitzsimons came up to Blake in The Plush Lounge on 27th September, when she was enjoying a night out with friends, and started dancing with her.

Cathy Olliver, prosecuting, told Oxford Crown Court: ‘”He suddenly put his hand around her throat.

“He was trying to talk into her ear but she couldn’t hear him.”

She quickly escaped and went over to dance in the safety of her group of friends, but was then approached by Fitzsimons again.

Olliver told the Crown Court that he put his hand over her throat again and “this time he squeezed it.”

“He said, ‘I want to take you home and abuse you and rape you,’ which greatly frightened and scared her.”

The police were called to the scene as Blake was seen crying in the corner, and Fitzsimons was arrested.

Blake told the Telegraph that the assault left her feeling “really scared.”

She said: “Because I didn’t know him, I felt I didn’t know what he was capable of, I felt really scared by what happened, especially because it brought back memories of a previous incident.”

Jack Fitzsimons is undertaking a DPhil in Machine Learning, and has previously worked at NASA and completed summer internships at Goldman Sachs and BAML.

He had been drinking at the King’s Arms on the night England were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup.

Jonathan Coode, defending, said: “He feels that a joke has been misunderstood and taken the wrong way and landed him in the crown court.”

Despite significantly upsetting Blake, the judge, Ian Pringle, told Fitzsimons:  “You are a talented young man and I am going to pass a sentence that I feel won’t damage you over a long period.”

He was ordered to pay £100 in court costs, a court charge of £150 and to pay his victim £400 in compensation.