US airman raped teenager he met over the internet after smuggling her onto RAF base in boot of his car, court hears

A serving US airman raped a teenager he met on a dating site after smuggling her onto the RAF base where he was stationed in the boot of his car, a court heard.

Keharron Bogstad, 24, is on trial accused of having ‘forced’ sex with his alleged victim on a number of occasions. 

He is said to have carried on even after she had made it clear she wanted him to stop.

On one occasion he is said to have strangled her until she passed out, it is alleged.

Jurors were told the ‘inexperienced’ and ‘smitten’ woman assumed the practices were ‘normal’ because Bogstad had been her first sexual partner. 

The court heard Mr Bogstad liked to have rough sex, and although it did not appeal to the woman, ‘she went along with it’.

It was only during later conversations with a new partner that she ‘came to realise that the activity had been without her consent,’ the court heard.

Opening the case on Tuesday, Paul Jarvis KC, prosecuting, said although the pair did engage in consensual sex at times, there were ‘specific episodes… when Mr Bogstad would have had no reasonable belief at the time that she had been consenting.’

Bogstad, who is still based at RAF Croughton in Northants, where the offences are alleged to have taken place, denies three counts of rape between November 2020, and February 2021. 

At the time, Bogstad was 19 and the woman aged 18.  

The woman, who is now in her twenties, cannot be named for legal reasons.

Northampton Crown Court heard the matter was reported to the police in April 2022. The woman told officers she had met Bogstad on a dating website in 2020.

Mr Jarvis said they quickly formed a sexual relationship. However, she claimed she was ‘scared of having sex with him but acquiesced because she did not want him to reject her.

Opening the case, the prosecutor added: ‘Owing to her sexual inexperience, there were a number of practices Mr Bogstad asked her to engage in with him, which she did mainly because she did not know any better.

‘She agreed that he could grab her round the neck when they were in the shower, for example. She did not realise at the time that that was not normal.

‘The sexual activity between them became more extreme as time went on. 

‘Mr Bogstad liked to have rough sex, but that did not appeal to her, although she went along with it.’

He said she felt there was no point resisting because she was convinced he would just do what he wanted anyway.

Mr Jarvis told the jury it was the prosecution case that the alleged victim was ‘young and naive’ when she met Bogstad, and was ‘sexually inexperienced, whereas he was not.’

He added: ‘The fact that he worked for the US Airforce and had to smuggle her onto his base no doubt added to the excitement of their relationship in her mind.

‘Most of the sexual encounters in which they engaged were consensual, even many of the more sexually adventurous encounters that involved BDSM practices.

‘But there were specific episodes when the prosecution say the encounters were not consensual, and when Mr Bogstad would have had no reasonable belief at the time that she had been consenting.’

The court heard that the woman told police about a time when she and Bogstad were having sex, and she asked him to stop because it was hurting.

But she claimed he replied, ‘No, I don’t care’, adding he had ‘just kept going and I was in pain, I was, like, ‘Please’ and he said ‘No’.’

On another occasion, she alleged, Bogstad began strangling her then took a photo of her after she passed out, which he showed her afterwards.

Mr Jarvis said Bogstad, who wore a navy blue suit and tie and dark coat in the dock, was arrested in May 2022 and interviewed for over an hour – telling detectives the pair had ‘engaged in rough but consensual sexual activity, but saying he would always stop if she wanted him to.’

However, the jury heard the woman provided officers with a number of Snapchat messages sent between her and Bogstad, including one in which he said he ‘could get her close to death’, adding that ‘Blacking out is always an option’ – to which she replied: ‘That’s a no from me’.

In another, he wrote it was ‘definitely tempting’ to push the woman sexually ‘just to do it and see your reaction afterwards.’

Mr Jarvis said she responded: ‘For you it is tempting, I’m the one having it done to me.’

The prosecutor said: ‘For his part, Mr Bogstad…maintains that their encounters were always consensual and that he always believed – genuinely and reasonably – that she was consenting.’

The jury was later shown a recorded police interview the woman gave in which she told detectives how she met Bogstad on a dating app named Badoo around October 2020, when he ‘seemed nice and he was quite talkative and friendly, and wanted to know more about me and my interests’. 

She said they met for the first time in November when he picked her up from her parents’ home, but RAF Croughton was on ‘lockdown’ at that time so Bogstad told her he was going to smuggle her in inside his car boot. 

The woman said: ‘I was so scared. He was telling me to shut up because if I was too loud he would get in trouble ‘I was really scared but I trusted him because I had known him a while and he was really friendly to me, and I just wanted a friend.’ 

She told how they went to Bogstad’s room, where he started trying to take her clothes off after they kissed. 

The woman added: ‘I was scared he would probably want nothing to do with me, so I thought it was ok. I was so scared. I did not know what to do. ‘I thought, ‘This is not how it’s meant to be. You are meant to talk about it’. 

‘He didn’t ask. It was like I had no control in this matter. I have never done this before. He wasn’t very gentle. He was quite forceful. I was just lying there. 

‘He stopped and I remember thinking, ‘What have I done?” 

Sobbing, she said Bogstad then grabbed her by the neck in the shower, and forced her to perform a sex act on him, adding: ‘There was no choice. I didn’t want to do it. I think if I had said I didn’t want to do it he’d have said I need to.’ 

A couple of days later the pair met again, with Bogstad smuggling her into his room on the base once more. 

She said: ‘I think it was immediately sex, but it was even more rough. ‘I was happy to have sex but didn’t want it to be too rough. Every time we had sex it would be more extreme.’ 

The woman told detectives they had sex ‘three or four times’ that day, adding: ‘I was hyperventilating and trying to push him off me but he wouldn’t stop. 

‘I would be lying there wishing it would stop because I didn’t want to do it any more. He would grab me by the neck. It would just be sex over and over again. I was scared. I would just let it happen. He would have done it anyway, or got mad at me.’ 

She said ‘there was no point in me saying no, because he would still do it. ‘

He had a lot of strength,’ she added. 

Asked by the officer why she continued to see Bogstad, she replied: ‘I thought he liked me. 

‘I thought he was really nice when he wasn’t having sex with me. I thought he would stop being like this. ‘I was really lonely. I didn’t have anyone. It was the first time a guy had ever shown me affection so I thought his is how it was meant to be.’ 

The trial, which is expected to last around a week, continues.