Married vet who was jailed after his wife found photos showing him sexually abusing a woman in hotel room loses appeal bid for freedom

• Rushton was jailed for 18 months earlier this year after assaulting the woman 

A married vet who was jailed after his wife found photos showing him sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room has lost a Court of Appeal bid for freedom.

Jamie Rushton, 45, filmed and photographed himself assaulting the woman after she passed out drunk in his bed following a boozy night at a Surrey hotel in 2017.

It was not until 2019 that the attack came to light when his wife discovered moving and still images showing Rushton’s abuse of the victim on a memory stick.

The woman was tracked down and, although she could not remember what happened, he confessed to the sexual assault and was jailed for 18 months at Wood Green Crown Court in May.

Today, he launched a bid to have his sentence suspended at the Court of Appeal, but three top judges dismissed his appeal bid as ‘unarguable’ and condemned him to serve his time.

Jamie Rushton, 45, filmed and photographed himself assaulting the woman after she passed out drunk in his bed following a boozy night at a Surrey hotel in 2017 

Rejecting the application, Mr Justice Holgate said there was ‘no merit’ in the appeal bid, despite 31 pages of exhaustive arguments written by Rushton 

Giving judgment, Mr Justice Holgate said the crown court judge, who saw him give evidence before sentencing him, had been convinced that Rushton did not believe he had done anything wrong.

The court heard Rushton, of Rickmansworth, Herts, assaulted the woman in his hotel bed after she had drunk ‘heavily’ and did not remember the end of the night.

She woke to find herself still clothed in Rushton’s room and assumed that he had given up his bed to her because she had been so drunk.

However, the truth emerged when Rushton’s wife discovered the images, which showed him touching her private parts.

It took two years for police to track down the victim.

At the crown court, he admitted sexual assault, but claimed it occurred in the context of a ‘consensual’ intimate relationship.

But following a hearing in which the vet gave evidence, Judge Karim Ezzat rejected his account.

He said Rushton did not appear to show genuine remorse. Although he pleaded guilty because he knew he had broken the law, he did not consider he had done anything wrong, said the judge.

The court heard Rushton, of Rickmansworth, Herts, assaulted the woman in his hotel bed after she had drunk ‘heavily’ and did not remember the end of the night 

Appealing against his 18-month sentence, Rushton argued that the sentence should have been suspended and complained that mitigating factors, including a lack of subsequent offending, had not been sufficiently taken into account.

Rejecting the application, Mr Justice Holgate said there was ‘no merit’ in the appeal bid, despite 31 pages of exhaustive arguments written by Rushton.

Referring to a previous judge’s refusal of Rushton’s case, he said: ‘The applicant took gross advantage of the intoxicated complainant.

‘The judge, who had seen the applicant give evidence, assessed no true remorse and no true acceptance he had done wrong.

‘His motivation was selfish sexual gratification. The victim was completely helpless and unknowing.’

He said the decision to send Rushton immediately to prison was ‘reasonable and properly open’ to the judge.

‘This renewed application for leave to appeal against sentence is refused,’ he concluded.

Mr Justice Holgate was sitting at London’s Court of Appeal with Lord Justice William Davis and Judge Sylvia de Bertodano.

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