‘All over me like a rash’: TV dance star guilty of sexual touching during drunken rumba

A TV dance star has been found guilty of sexual touching during a vodka-fuelled rumba before he made further unwanted contact when he crawled, naked, into a woman’s bed last year.

Trenton Shipley is seen arriving at Downing Centre Court in September, 2022. Picture: NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

A Dancing With The Stars contestant sexually touched a woman during a vodka-fuelled rumba above a Sydney dance studio before crawling into her bed naked and touching her again, a court has found.

The case tested the boundary between simulated “intimacy” during dance and non-consensual sexual touching with a magistrate left concerned about “extraordinary” comments by one witness performer.

Champion ballroom dancer Trenton Shipley appeared in Downing Local Court on Monday charged with four counts of sexual touching against a woman in February 2021.

Police accused Shipley of putting his hands on the female dancer, who cannot be named, while teaching her how to dance the rumba three times throughout the evening at an Annandale apartment.

Both were staying in the apartment which belonged to their mutual friend, Leeanne Bampton, who ran the attached dance studio.

Trenton Shipley at Downing Centre Court in Sydney. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Shipley had been drinking in the kitchen and badgered the complainant to dance with him, the court heard. Ms Bampton was not in the room.

The woman was uncomfortable and agreed to dance with Shipley to be polite, the court heard.

Magistrate Julia Virgo, on Monday, found Shipley had grabbed the woman by the hair and pulled her in for a kiss during the dance, but she turned away.

Shipley kissed her neck, the magistrate found, and said he was “falling in love” with the woman during the dance in the kitchen.

Later that night Shipley and the woman slept in separate beds in Ms Bampton’s apartment, the court heard.

Police alleged Shipley crawled into the woman’s bed just after 4am, naked, and told her he “loved her” again.

Shipley with newsreader Chris Bath, who was his partner on the Channel 7 series in 2005.

Prosecutors claimed Shipley touched the woman’s vagina and breasts over her clothes despite her clear protestations for a fourth time in the bed.

Shipley pleaded not guilty but Magistrate Virgo found him guilty of three of the four counts of sexual touching — including the incident in the bed.

The magistrate dismissed one of three alleged incidents of touching in the kitchen.

The court heard the woman Shipley touched had disclosed his unwanted, drunken advances to others following the evening in Annandale.

‘ALL OVER ME LIKE A RASH’

“My teacher had a friend over, he was super drunk, he was all over me like a rash” the woman told one friend, the court heard.

The woman did not go to police until later that month, the court heard, because she did not want to jeopardise her long friendship with Ms Bampton.

Shipley allegedly repeatedly touched a woman at a Sydney dance studio.

Ms Bampton gave evidence at the Downing Centre hearing last year.

She told the court the rumba was a “very intimate dance”.

“You move very quickly, in and out, every body part touching. You intertwine your legs. You’re cheek to cheek,” Ms Bampton reportedly told the court.

Magistrate Virgo, on Monday, said she was troubled by Ms Bampton’s other comments about the way dancers touch during a rumba.

NO-GO AREAS

Ms Bampton told the court she grabs people by the buttocks often to show them how to perform moves in dance but said the breasts and crotch were no-go areas.

Other dancers who gave evidence, including Shipley’s accuser and her regular dance partner, both denied that being touched on the buttocks was a normal part of the rumba.

“I was sceptical about the voracity of much of Ms Bampton’s evidence,” the magistrate said.

The magistrate said Ms Bampton’s comments about touching other dancers were “extraordinary” and did not accept the comments.

The magistrate also said Ms Bampton had made “gratuitous” comments about the lesser dance skills of Shipley’s accuser, among other comments about the woman.

Ms Bampton, she magistrate concluded, was there to support Shipley and was concerned about her studio’s reputation.

Ms Bampton is not accused of any wrongdoing

Shipley sat silently, flanked by supporters, in the court on Monday.

He will be sentenced at a later date.