BA pilot ‘filmed sex with flight attendant without consent and sent it to friends’

A British Airways pilot planned a ‘virtual threesome’ when he recorded an air stewardess during sex and sent it to another pilot, a court has heard.

Tim Capron is on trial accused of voyeurism, after a jury heard he ‘secretly’ took a photograph of a member of BA cabin crew during consensual sex, in which he spanked her bottom with a paddle while she was blindfolded.

The 38-year-old also filmed two videos of the complainant, who cannot be named to protect her anonymity, performing a sex act and sent the images to another BA pilot, Steven Farnworth, who Capron described as a ‘sexual partner’ of his who he enjoyed having threesomes with.

Jane Davies, prosecuting, said in a closing speech: ‘The truth is that the sexual activity had been planned by the defendant. He made it clear to Mr Farnworth that there was to be some sexual activity that night and he told Mr Farnworth he could expect some videos.

‘He made sure that the scene was set so it would be done and it was to be done in secret, it was not to be done until the complainant was blindfolded, it certainly was not going to be done with her consent and knowledge.

‘You may think, members of the jury, it was a deliberate and conscious decision, not to mention it to the complainant, because she might have said no to being filmed and that would have spoiled the defendant’s and Mr Farnworth’s evening, their plans of what I would submit was some kind of virtual threesome, that is essentially what it was.’

Capron now accepts the complainant, who he matched with on the dating app Tinder, did not actually consent to being recorded and accepted he had never asked her whether she did, jurors heard.

Capron, who denies one charge of voyeurism, argued he did not know the complainant would not consent, pointing out they had discussed ‘whips, restraints and dominance’ in messages before they met for sex on an occasion in September 2021.

The court had heard how Capron had sent the complainant messages in which he described his love of what he called ‘consensual rape’ and ‘double penetration’. Messages showed the complainant had said this was ‘beyond my limits’, but nevertheless agreed to go on two dates with Capron.

The jury heard Capron filmed two videos of the complainant during sex and sent both to his friend, the first video was 11 seconds long and the second video was 19 seconds – 30 seconds in total.

Ms Davies it was ‘absurd’ for Capron to claim he therefore believed she would have consented to being recorded for him and his friend’s sexual gratification.

‘This is not a common-sense conclusion, it is a giant illogical leap which cannot be made. The activities are completely different’, Ms Davies said.

The prosecutor described Oxford-educated Capron, who said filming and being filmed was a part of his sex life, as ‘egocentric’ and ‘selfish’.

‘His approach to sexual activity is all what he likes, what pleases him, basing decisions about his knowledge of consent on his own experience and what other sexual partners have allowed him to do’, Ms Davies said.

‘He had no regard whatsoever, you may think, of her wishes at the time. He knew, members of the jury, that she was not consenting’, the prosecutor added. ‘This was all part of the sexual game that he and Mr Farnworth were engaging in’.

Messages between Capron and Mr Farnworth after the incident showed the defendant had described the complainant as ‘f***ing annoying’ and a ‘MF [mixed fleet] hoe that thinks she can control me’.

Ms Davies told Reading crown court on Wednesday that these messages demonstrated Capron’s ‘arrogant misogyny’.

Jenni Dempster KC, defending, said Capron was a man of good character – other than one conviction for extreme pornography in August 10 2023 for which he got a six-month conditional discharge – who had not behaved towards the complainant in a ‘misogynistic’ way.

‘Whatever your view of the way he and Mr Farnworth exchanged messages, he is not on trial for that’, Ms Dempster said.

The lawyer accepted some jurors may find Capron’s sex life ‘rather unpleasant and distasteful’, but pointed out the trial was ‘not a court of morals’.

‘If you disapprove of all of this, it probably has absolutely no relevance to the verdict you will reach’, she argued. ‘You are concerned here with whether he actually knew she was not consenting.’

The trial continues.

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