A 25-year-old man stands accused of tricking his mentally-ill girlfriend into engaging in a sex act just three weeks before she took her own life.

Kieran Wilson is facing a private prosecution brought by the bereaved parents of Isabella Goddard, 22, who was found dead in a bathtub in Canterbury on April 13, 2019.

It is alleged that three weeks before, on March 24, while planning to end their relationship, Wilson used deception to get Miss Goddard to agree to engage in a particular sexual activity, while knowing she had a mental disorder.

It is said he convinced her it would be the last time they would have sex for about four weeks, as Miss Goddard was due to return to her family home in the Cayman Islands for psychological assessments and treatment.

While she was there, Wilson ended the relationship.

Miss Goddard returned to the UK on April 12 and the following day was found dead in the bath at her home in St Edmunds Road.

The cause of her death was ruled to be submersion under water due to intoxication of drugs in a “self-administered overdose”.

On Monday, Wilson appeared remotely at Canterbury Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing, but was not required to enter a plea to the charge of “deception to procure sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder”.

Miss Goddard’s parents brought the prosecution privately, the court was told.

But a judge this week invited the Crown Prosecution Service to examine the evidence.

The authority will be expected to review the case in time for a further hearing at the same court on July 1.

Referring the papers to chief crown prosecutor Kate Brown, Judge Rupert Lowe said he had “never been in this position before”.

Wilson, formerly from Canterbury but now living in Hertfordshire, was granted unconditional bail.

Judge Lowe told him: “This is a private prosecution. You know what the issues are.

“It is the right view of both parties that the Crown Prosecution Service review this case and I’m inviting them to do so.”

Miss Goddard’s death was ruled a suicide following a jury inquest in Maidstone in March 2020.