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Accused 'Riverside Rapist' Says Encounter Was Consensual

By DNAinfo Staff on October 31, 2011 8:05pm

Hugues Akassy, a suspected rapist who posed as a French journalist, was arrested after allegedly raping a woman in Riverside Park.
Hugues Akassy, a suspected rapist who posed as a French journalist, was arrested after allegedly raping a woman in Riverside Park.
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Manhattan District Attorney's Office

MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — The Ivory Coast native accused of raping a woman in Riverside Park and stalking four other women testified in Manhattan Criminal Court Monday, insisting that the park encounter was consensual.

Hugues-Denver Akassy, 43, who wore a white cravat, blue jeans and a pinstriped blazer on the witness stand, claimed that the incident began with a romantic picnic in Riverside Park and transitioned to consensual intercourse behind a wall near the West Side Highway.

Akassy described meeting his accuser, a Russian tourist, at the Time Warner Center in July 2010, after he says he was exercising at the Equinox gym.

“I said ‘Look, you appear attractive to me and I would like really to ask you out,’” he testified in a thick French accent. “I wrote down my phone contact information…The same night she emailed me.”

Prosecutors challenged Hugues-Denver Akassy's claims to have traveled the world as a photojournalist, noting that there are only a few stamps in two of his expired passports.
Prosecutors challenged Hugues-Denver Akassy's claims to have traveled the world as a photojournalist, noting that there are only a few stamps in two of his expired passports.
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DNAinfo/Olivia Scheck

Akassy, who is believed to be homeless and claims to have worked as an international photojournalist, said he met the woman the following week, about 6:30 p.m., in Riverside Park with a dozen roses and a picnic basket full of bread, cheese and wine.

After “kissing and hugging” for a while on the grass, the two sought privacy by laying a sheet over a MetroNorth grating behind a wall that overlooks the Westside Highway, according to Akassy and his lawyer Glenn Hardy.

There, Akassy claimed that he and the woman engaged in consensual intercourse.

However, after nearly four hours in the park, Akassy said the woman revealed that she was traveling with a child, who was back at her hotel. Supposedly concerned for the child’s welfare, Akassy said he demanded that they go to the hotel to check on him.

“I said the police are going to charge you with child endangerment and charge me as an accomplice,” he testified.

Akassy claimed that the woman then “freaked out,” accusing him of using her for sex, and walked away.

He recalled that he then followed her back into the park, where he was confronted by a group of men who asked him whether he had robbed her. The confrontation eventually led to Akassy’s arrest on 72nd Street and West End Avenue, according to his testimony.

The Russian tourist did not testify against Akassy. However, four other women have taken the stand against him.

He has denied all of the charges, which include rape, sexual assualt, harassment and stalking.

Assitant District Attorney Jessica Troy began her cross-examination of Akassy Monday afternoon, challenging various claims about his personal history.

Akassy stood by his previous statements, insisting that he had earned three masters degrees before he was 22, that he had traveled the globe on journalistic assignments, and that he had received something called “The International Red Cross Information Award” in 1992.

Troy is set to continue her cross examination on Tuesday morning.