Yahoo Sport 
Cricketer Hepburn 'demeaned and trivialised rape' in WhatsApp sex game group
WhatsApp messages sent by disgraced cricketer Alex Hepburn have been revealed after he was sentenced for raping a woman as part of a sexual conquest ‘game’.
The messages, which weren’t shown to jurors during the trial, were described by the judge as “sexist, pathetic and trivialising rape”.
In the messages, Hepburn outlines the rules for the so-called ‘Stat Game’ in which he describes himself and teammate Joe Clarke as a "pair of tens" who "should be banging models".
In another message the ex-Worcestershire cricketer boasted "Got to understand that Hepperdawg is a horny c*** and without you keeping my head straight just goes and does rogue things".
The messages - recovered by police from mobile phone records - also included a reference to a "Tinder bird" which dismissed her as "not great" but added "a stat's a stat hahaha".
Although the jury didn’t hear some conversations that prosecutors claimed may have been “scores” from a previous competition, they were privy to messages sent by Hepburn in the week of the incident, where he referred to threesomes involving team mate Joe Clarke.
"Clarkey you only won last year because the hepperdawg let ya have three balls with him," Hepburn wrote.
"Always been me dragging the birds back. You raping them."
That exchange was explained in court by Hepburn as being "light" use of the word rape, used jokingly in an attempt to get under Clarke's skin.
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The messages also included the rules of the ‘game’ posted by Hepburn.
"Every freshie has to be put into the chat with this detail (name, age, black or white, rate out of 10, yor (sic) performance out of 10, condom or no) End of the shaggers week is the September the 15th," Hepburn wrote in a post described in pre-trial legal argument as repellent and pathetic.
The rules, posted by Hepburn four days before the night out which ended in his arrest, said the weekend following the end of the contest had been earmarked for "punishments", with the last-placed competitor buying dinner at a restaurant.
The prosecution said Hepburn was ‘fired up’ by the contest to sleep with the most women, before carrying out the rape at his flat in Portland Street, Worcester, on 1 April, 2017.
Judge Jim Tindal remarked that Hepburn “probably thought it was laddish behaviour at the time”.
‘In truth it was foul sexism. It demeaned women and trivialised rape – a word you personally threw around lightly. Only now do you realise how serious rape is.’
