Banker faces trial for student rape

A former Goldman Sachs executive accused of raping an Irish student at his luxury holiday home in Long Island in New York will go on trial in April.

Investment banker Jason Lee, 38, is accused of raping a 20-year-old student on August 17, 2013. He denies the charges of rape, assault and sexual misconduct.

The student was in the US working for the summer on a J1 visa and has since returned to Ireland.

Assistant District Attorney Kerri Kelly confirmed after a brief pre-trial conference yesterday the woman will return to New York to testify at the trial.

Mr Lee met the young woman at a restaurant in East Hampton where he was celebrating his 37th birthday. The banker invited the summer student and some friends back to his holiday home for a party.

Long Island police were called to the €26,500-a-month rental to investigate a separate matter. A friend of the woman alerted a female officer and the woman reported the attack.

Police found Lee hiding in the back seat of his Range Rover. Lawyers for the banker claim the sex was consensual and have since claimed that there had been a “rush to arrest”.

The victim told police Lee was naked when he followed her to the bathroom. She tried to close the door, but he shoved it open with such force that he knocked her to the ground, where he pinned her down and raped her.

Last year, Judge Barbara Kahn issued a restraining order against the banker after a private investigator working on his behalf contacted the victim at her home in Ireland.

Lee, who lives in Manhattan, had been working in Goldman Sachs’ equity capital markets department at the time, but had since left the firm.

The trial starts on April 6 at Suffolk Country Criminal Court, about two hours east of New York City.