A married city worker was allegedly drugged, taken to the Cotswolds then raped, a court heard.

The man who took him to the Middle Barton cottage on December 10 last year was Luiz da Silva Neto, prosecutors say. He is also accused of molesting another man at the same rural Oxfordshire hideaway a month earlier.

Da Silva Neto, 35, denies allegations of administering a substance with intent, engaging in penetrative sexual activity without consent, rape, kidnap and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Opening the prosecution’s case at Oxford Crown Court this afternoon, Matthew Walsh said: “In a sentence or two, the prosecution case is that he has sexually abused two men in circumstances where those men are intoxicated – incapacitated – and, clearly, as a result not consenting, not agreeing to what was taking place.”

He added: “The prosecution say he drugged them. He administered an unknown substance to each of them so he could do things to them when they were, in effect, out of it.”

The drug he was alleged to have used – GHB or GHL – was one da Silva Neto had admitted using recreationally and bottles of the substance were found in his washbag when his London flat was raided on December 12 last year, the jury was told. It is said to have produced a euphoric and aphrodisiac effect in some people, similar to the class A drug ecstasy.

The court heard that da Silva Neto’s second alleged victim had been out with colleagues at the Raffles bar in Chelsea’s Kings Road on the night of December 9. He left the club heavily-intoxicated but remembered being put into da Silva Neto’s car, the court heard.

He was taken to a number of places in the capital then, later, to the defendant’s Cotswolds retreat. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed to have a ‘tunnel vision’-like recollection of being made to drink a ‘dark liquid’.

His next memory was waking up naked in the house at 10am on December 10. A stranger, who the prosecution say was da Silva Neto, told him a taxi was waiting outside.

Mr Walsh said the man looked at his phone and then spoke to his wife, realising he had been reported missing. He did not know ‘why he was there, why he was naked, [or] who he was with’, the jury was told.

The alleged victim to returned to London and was taken to hospital by his wife. Urine tests and a hair sample were negative for the drugs GHB or GHL.

When da Silva Neto’s phone was later looked through by the police, they found photographs and video footage of the man. The alleged victim appeared ‘incoherent’, while the defendant was ‘animated and hyper’. He was heard telling the man to ‘be a good boy’ and ‘giz us a kiss’.

Prosecutors claim da Silva Neto drugged the man, sexually assaulted and orally raped him.

The second incident came a month after a first, the court heard. On November 10, 2021, a man known to da Silva Neto had come to the Middle Barton cottage to carry out some works on the house.

He was given Jägermeister to drink by the defendant and began to feel extremely tired, the court was told. He fell asleep in his clothes but woke up to find he was naked, ‘paralysed’ and the defendant was performing oral sex on him while pornography played in the background.

Da Silva Neto was said to have ‘slid back down’ the alleged victim’s body when he realised the man was awake and looking at him. The man woke the next day feeling ‘broken in two’.

Jurors were told that there was suggestion in a WhatsApp conversation between the complainant and defendant about the former being given money in exchange for the matter to go no further. “He did not choose that course and instead reported it to the police,” Mr Walsh told the jury.

The court heard that other videos found on da Silva Neto’s phone by the police showed him secretly-filming men at urinals on December 9, the night of the second incident. In one video he could be heard asking a man if he lived around the area, Mr Walsh said.

He added that the jury would be invited to infer the defendant was looking for a man or men of whom he could take advantage. “In other words, he is being predatory, looking for such an opportunity to find and take advantage of a vulnerable man.”

Da Silva Neto, of Riverlight Quay, Wandsworth, denies all allegations against him.

Interviewed by the police, the defendant claimed all sexual interactions between him and the two men had been consensual, the jury heard.

The trial continues.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward