Accused Rapist's Defense: 'I Was Sleepwalking'

Aug. 28, 2007 — -- After a five-day trial, a jury took just two hours to acquit a British Royal Air Force mechanic of raping a 15-year-old girl. His defense: sleepwalking.

Kenneth Ecott, 26, was found not guilty of rape earlier this month, despite admitting to having nonconsensual sex with a minor. Ecott insisted he suffered from a sleep disorder and had no memory of the incident.

Like walking, eating or driving in your sleep, sleep sex or "sexsomnia" is a rare, but real, phenomenon, experts told ABCNEWS.com.

Ecott, whose regular sleepwalking in the air force earned him the nickname Night Rider, said after an evening of heavy drinking at a birthday party, he passed out along with several other guest on an air mattress set up in his friend's living room.

His accuser testified to waking up at 3 a.m. with Ecott on top of her. She screamed and watched as he slowly walked naked out into the home's garden.

"I was drunk and went to sleep, then I woke up and my life was over. I was standing outside, completely naked, wondering what the hell I was doing there," Ecott testified.

"Everyone was asking, 'What have you done?' Sleepwalking is the only rational explanation for what I did," he said.

Sleep experts call any behavior not typically associated with sleep "parasomnia."

"Talking in your sleep is rare, walking rarer, eating very rare, and driving extremely rare," said Dr. Colin Shapiro, of Toronto Hospital's Sleep and Alertness Clinic.

"Sexual intercourse during sleep is probably more common than people realize. Any number of students in university have stories of going to the toilet, ending up in the wrong room, and touching up a stranger," he said.

Parasomnia is relatively common in children, but only 3 to 6 percent of adults continue to display such behaviors.

Shapiro has testified in several cases, including rape and murder trials, in which the accused claimed they had been sleeping at the time.

In 2005, he testified on behalf of Jan Luedecke, who claimed he passed out on a couch beside the woman who later accused him of rape, but he had no memory of having sex with her.