Sussex university student ‘pinned down and raped woman’

A university club social secretary raped another student after a Freshers’ week pub crawl, a court has heard.

Liam Allen, 22, from Brighton, organised a pub crawl round the city for his Sussex University Royal Navy Unit.

The 20-year-old victim told police she had drunk heavily after going out during a themed Freshers’ week night out and could not remember getting home.

She woke to find the defendant on top of her, a jury at Lewes Crown Court in Hove heard.

Asked if she had taken any drugs on the night out, the young woman said: ‘No drugs. Not that I’m aware of anyway.’

She told police Allen, a computer science student, had held her down and raped her in her own flat.

‘I said stop, he pinned me down, he was holding my arms, I couldn’t move him off I don’t know how we got home or how it started,’ she told police.

‘He was on top of me and his face was in front of my face and he was holding my arms.

‘I was trying to push him off me and he was holding me harder. He was just stopping me from moving.

‘It was so uncomfortable and horrible. I don’t know what he was doing. I think I tried to sit up.

‘Every time I said stop, he would just hold me down again. 

Allen denies rape as the trial continues

‘I was trying to move just trying to get up off the bed, just trying to push him off.

‘He was leaning over me and I couldn’t move so I just lay there and waited for him to finish. He didn’t say anything. He was just holding me down.

‘He was making sure I couldn’t move. It was horrible. I didn’t want it to happen,’ the young woman told police.

Rachel Beckett, prosecuting, said: ‘He said he was lonely and she was a good looking girl. 

‘He said he was sick and twisted for sleeping with her but she was able to consent.’ 

Mr Allen allegedly made the comments in a phone call with the young woman and her boyfriend the day after the Crown say he raped her in her flat. 

Ms Beckett said police searched Mr Allen’s mobile phone. ‘The defendant’s phone shows search terms on October 13, 2016 which included Accused of rape, Minimum sentence for rape and CPS guidelines for rape,’ Ms Beckett said. 

Ms Beckett took the woman through photographs taken of her injuries.

‘Did you have any bruising before going out,’ she asked the young woman. ‘No,’ she said.

‘Do you recall how that bruising came to be,’ Ms Beckett asked. ‘No,’ the young woman said.

A university club social secretary raped another student after a Freshers’ week pub crawl, a court heard

The court heard the rape took place at the victim’s student flat in the early hours of October 12, 2016.

Ms Beckett, when outlining the case to the jury, said the young woman was in such a state she was incapable of consenting to sex with Allen.

‘He took advantage of her state,’ she said. ‘Her next memory was lying on her back in her own bed with the defendant on top of her, holding her arms down. She told him to stop but he did not.

‘She was unable to move as he had positioned himself on top of her with all of his weight,’ Ms Beckett said.

Allen denies rape. The trial continues.