Ex-Spandau Ballet singer guilty of sex assaults

A former Spandau Ballet frontman is facing jail after being found guilty of raping a woman and attempting to rape another.

Ross Davidson, 37, who used the stage name Ross Wild, had starred in Queen-based West End musical We Will Rock You, and performed in 2018 as the singer for 1980s favourites Spandau Ballet.

Jurors at Wood Green Crown Court heard the Aberdeen-born musical theatre actor, aspiring songwriter and singer carried out the assaults because he felt he could get “sex on demand”.

Davidson, of Finchley, north London, had pleaded not guilty to the rape of a woman in London in March 2015, along with the attempted rape and sexual assault of another woman in Thailand in December 2019, saying his actions were consensual.

Ross Davidson with former bandmates Martin Kemp, Gary Kemp, John Keeble and Steve Norman of Spandau Ballet in 2018. Getty Images

On Wednesday, jurors found him guilty of all charges after more than 11 hours of deliberation.

Davidson had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of voyeurism in December 2019 against the woman in Thailand after secretly filmed video he had taken of her as she slept was found on his mobile phone.

Prosecutor Richard Hearnden said Davidson had been thought of as “a bit of a sex symbol” but the two women say he had “a much darker side that they did not notice, at least at first”.

He had success, musical talent and was considered “charming and charismatic” but “it is because Ross Davidson expects to get sex on demand that he will resort to rape and sexual assault if he is not given what he thinks he deserves”, Mr Hearnden said.

Davidson, who met the women on the Tinder dating app, stated that all sex he had was consensual.

He described himself as “sex positive”, telling the court this was about “open dialogue, open-mindedness about people’s predilections, just an openness to trying different sexual appetites”.

This could include bondage, restraint, group sex, and he had “once or twice” attended a sex party.

The rape victim told the jury Davidson attacked her while she was asleep in his bed and recalled feeling “helpless” and “scared to react”.

Before assaulting her Davidson had “mentioned he liked the idea of having sex with a mannequin, a person in a helpless state, someone not moving”.

Jurors also heard he put her in a sex collar and wrist cuffs for about 20 minutes without her permission.

This made her “confused” and put her in “a state of shock” but he removed them when she asked, she said.

In court Davidson called all these claims of assault and a sex collar an “out-and-out lie.”

Another woman said she woke up in a hotel bedroom in Thailand to find Davidson trying to have sex without her permission or a condom.

Davidson said “thanks for being cool about it” when she calmly talked him down from raping her, she recalled.

This attempted rape happened after Davidson and the woman had drunken sex the night before.

The woman went on to stay with him that night, which she described as “regrettable but fair” before they spent time together the following day on a beach and sightseeing trip.

Detectives tracked her down after finding Davidson’s mobile phone video showing her being fondled while snoring, “asleep, still and unresponsive” and “at least half naked” in a Thailand hotel bedroom, the prosecution said.

She had no idea the video existed until the police told her in 2023.

In her evidence the woman strongly dismissed a suggestion by Davidson that she had given him permission to touch her while she was asleep, telling the jury: “Why would I want a man to touch me when I am in a state of unconsciousness?”

In his police interview Davidson described a whirlwind romance with the woman in Thailand where they had consensual sex and talked about their “kinks and fantasies, very normal fantasises”.

He admitted a voyeurism charge over the video, but had denied sexual assault from the same incident.

Davidson said he created the video for “selfish reasons, for sexual gratification” and he “had permission to touch her but not to film”.

Then, getting emotional, he told the jury: ”I wish I had never done it.”

The court heard Davidson had been found guilty of rape, two counts of sexual assault and voyeurism at a previous trial.

Addressing jurors, Judge John Dodd KC thanked them for their work during the case, adding: “I expect you have all felt rather sad about the people involved.”

A further hearing has been set for February 4 at the same court, when a sentencing date is expected to be discussed.