A man accused of raping a woman “hundreds of times” has claimed he was suffering from “sexomnia,” a condition in which a person engages in sexual activities while asleep. He told the woman the sleep disorder “made him do it.”
Lawrence Barilli, 35, is on trial at Glasgow High Court after being charged with assaulting and raping the woman between September 2011 and October 2012. The incidents are said to have occurred in a number of locations.
His alleged victim told jurors that such incidents had occurred “a couple of hundred times” and when she confronted him, he said he had “no memory” of it.
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“He said it was sexsomnia. I would wake up with him having sex with me,” she told the court. “I did not really know what to think. I thought it was something that he was trying to spice up the relationship. It was silent throughout … I did not like it.”
The woman said the first incident happened months after they had first come into contact with each other. She told the trial: “I basically asked him what last night was about. He said: ‘What are you talking about?’ I said ‘Having sex through the night,’ – but he said he had no memory of it.”
The woman claimed when it happened again she felt she was unable to “stop him.” She said she was “upset” at what happened, adding that it took place a “couple of hundred times.”
Jurors heard Barilli later said he had been “diagnosed with a condition that makes him do that.” He told the woman his GP had diagnosed him.
“I told him that I had never heard of [sexsomnia], but I looked it up online,” the woman said.
“He just said ‘Well, I have got it.’”
Barilli denies the allegations and the trial continues.
