A Sex Education star filmed a budding teen actress naked on his iPad and then tried to bill her family £18,000 for missing drama lessons after sexually abusing her, a court heard. Alexander Westwood, 24, has gone on trial charged with 26 sex offences against women and children at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Jurors were told how he forced pupils in his drama class to recite Shakespeare naked and also engaged in nude role-play scenarios. Westwood’s criminality is said to stretch back to when he was just ten-years-old and his alleged victims include two children and former pupils. The Netflix actor – who also starred in BBC’s Doctors – sexually assaulted one girl over a seven-year period, the court was told.
Westwood, of Albrighton, Shropshire, denies the charges, which include rape, and his trial is expected to last a month. This week, the mum of one alleged victim said Westwood demanded £18,000 for her daughter’s missed acting lessons after she withdrew her following the abuse.
The teenager attended lessons at the actor’s flat alone in 2021 and claims she was forced to have sex during classes and filmed naked on Westwood’s iPad. The jury of seven men and five women watched excerpts of one of his pupil’s police interviews where she accused him of repeatedly sexually assaulting her.
Giving evidence, her mum said there was a contract which her daughter signed and Westwood stipulated he would be paid £18,000 if she failed to attend lessons. She said: “My daughter had to have counselling after what he did to her in those lessons. I phoned the police to report what he had done to her.
“The police told me not to worry about the contract because she was a minor and it was not legally certifiable.”
The court was shown an entry from the girl’s college journal which outlined her mother’s complaints about Westwood’s conduct and the presence of the video on his iPad of the pupil naked. The court was also shown a video, from Westwood’s apartment, where the mother and a male went to remonstrate with him about the £18,000.
The jury heard previously how Westwood was a “supreme manipulator” who used his stardom to prey on his victims. Prosecutor Andrew Wallace said: “Alexander Westwood is an actor. He is a supreme manipulator. All these charges have a common theme, of inappropriate touching and predatory behaviour. The ten indictments concerning a girl, the first charge is on the date of his tenth birthday, that is the date because there is not criminality before this age.”
Mr Wallace claimed the abuse of a girl at a house in Walsall, West Mids., included vile actions which numbered more than the ten charges relating to her. He added: “If we were to list every instance there would be hundreds of charges.”
One pupil accused him of sexual deviancy, and controlling behaviour, often telling her mother “she should be admitted to a psychiatric hospital because she is going off the rails”. Mr Wallace added: “Then when giving acting lessons, he again used this as an opportunity to touch his pupils inappropriately. These are schoolgirls we are talking about, teenagers. Imagine asking Dame Judy Dench to recite Hamlet naked, she would tell you where to go.”
One victim, who claimed she was raped by the star, was reduced to tears on the stand as she relived ‘the hell’ of her encounter with Westwood. The young woman, who was one of the actor’s drama pupils, told the court she was raped, sexually abused and violently assaulted by him.
She said: “I did not realise it at the time but I was a victim of domestic abuse. He would get very angry and hold me down by my wrists, I would have to bite him just to get away from him. He would ask me for sex and when I said no would carry on. I would tell him I did not want to because I was not happy, but he would just ignore me.
“He would get angry and throw things. He would regularly pin me down by my wrists so I could not move. I would have to bite him to get him off me. He would lie, lie and lie. He told my mother I needed to be in a psychiatric hospital.” The court heard also allegations of Westwood’s controlling behaviour with those that he had sexual relationships with.
In her evidence, the woman added: “He phoned the police on me, and lied to them. I then saw on my CCTV in my house that he stole my cameras, which made me feel vulnerable. He raped me. I have had normal relationships since, I suffer with anxiety and have been treated for my mental health but I never have been so volatile as when I was with him.”
Westwood denies all charges, claiming those who have levelled charges against him have individual motivations to lie about the allegations.
The trial continues.