Accused explains complex robbery by telling Northampton court he is a male escort

Tyrone Platt, 20, was giving evidence in a trial where he is accused of enticing his male victim to a house in Home Farm Close. Little Billing, where he allegedly beat the man up in a bedroom and threatened him before forcing him to withdraw £300 from a cash machine.

Although Platt admits taking the money and striking the victim at the cashpoint, he denies it was part of a larger plot to extort money.

He told a jury at Northampton Crown Court yesterday that he had been a male escort since the summer of 2014, and was paid cash for “sexual encounters”.

Claiming the victim knew he was entering a financial transaction when contact was made on the Grindr social network app, Platt said: “Everyone who goes on there knows you have to pay for sex at some point.

“I can’t remember when, but at some point [in the evening of the robbery] we discussed having sex.”

The victim had previously told the court he was invited to the house via Grindr with no mention made of payment.

During the course of the evening, he claims he was pushed onto a bed by Jordan Bridge-Simmons - who he had discovered on arrival was Platt’s boyfriend - and Platt burst in, claiming to be furious at the pair being together.

Platt and Bridge-Simmons then took off their clothes and proceeded to beat up the victim in the dark, the prosecution says, at one point making “terrifying” noises with a pair of machetes.

Yesterday Platt gave a different version of events.

He said he had left the house - which was Bridge-Simmons’s mum’s home - to walk the dogs while his boyfriend “made the victim comfortable” in a spare room.

Platt said he returned to hear suspicious noises in Bridge-Simmon’s room and found the victim on top of his semi-conscious boyfriend.

The victim, Platt claims, apologised and offered to pay the money arranged earlier for the agreed sex.

Platt and the victim then both went to the cash machine where, all parties agree, Platt was took the money and hit the victim.

When they returned to the house, a drunk Bridge-Simmons had crashed the victim’s car into a Mini Cooper, which then ploughed into a neighbour’s house.

Tyrone Platt denies false imprisonment. He has admitted robbery and actual bodily harm.

Bridge-Simmons denies actual bodily harm, robbery and false imprisonment. He admits stealing the victim’s car and crashing it while drunk.

The trial continues.