BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

Hi, I'm Tina Deheelie and this is Beyond Today from BBC Radio for a space to ask

one big question about one big story.

Today, what does one rape trial tell us about lad culture and consent?

Today's episode starts with the trial of Alex Hepburn, the cricketer he was

jailed last month for raping a sleeping woman. It happened after Hepburn set up a sexual conquest game on a

WhatsApp group. Now we're going to look into the attitudes that lead to this

kind of misogynistic behavior and speak to a top lawyer about the

legal difficulties when this kind of behavior is brought up in court.

We're also going to speak to a self-confessed reformed lad about why this culture exists

and how to tackle it. A warning, there's really strong language coming up and a discussion

about rape that you may find

upsetting to hear. Phil Mackie is a BBC news correspondent who's been covering the

Alex Hepburn case from the beginning. He was a county cricketer not really made it into the first team in Worcestershire at the time of this incident in April 2017

but he was a promising all-rounder on the verge of the first team squad.

He's originally from Australia but he'd moved to Worcestershire several years earlier and

come through the County Academy Cricket team, played local club cricket and was a regular feature one of those

characters who if you went out on a Saturday night in Worcester as I sometimes

did because I live in the city you would see him with other cricketers on a big night out.

What did he do? So this was in the beginning of April 2017 he and his flatmate Joe Clark also a professional

cricketer at the time with Worcestershire had arranged on what's up to meet up

with several of their teammates and go for a night out before the beginning of the cricket season.

...