A WOMAN told police she “fell to the floor and started crying” after waking up to find a man raping her, a court heard.

Shaun Western, 23, is accused of raping a woman in Colchester in 2018, but he claims the sex was consensual.

A trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard the complainant was heavily intoxicated when she was put to bed by a friend following a night out at Walkabout, in Colchester town centre.

She was joined in bed by Western, who later told the police the complainant fell asleep while they had sex.

The jury watched a police interview with the alleged victim, who said Western fled the flat after she woke up.

She said she “tried going after him”, but was “pulled back” by a friend.

She said she told her friend: “I just woke up and he was on top of me.”

“I just fell to the floor and started crying,” she added.

Prosecutor Christopher Kerr summarised the complainant’s evidence.

He told the jury the complainant awoke “on her back, Mr Western on top of her, with the duvet partially open”.

He added: “She said to him: ‘What the f*** are you doing?’.

“He then jumped off, started pulling his trousers on, said something like ‘you wanted this’ and then he made off. She started screaming.”

The complainant told police she had not been alone with Western during the night out. 

The jury will be shown CCTV footage which shows the complainant and Western chatting in the smoking area outside Walkabout.

The jury heard the footage “appears” to show them kissing. 

Mr Kerr said: “You’ll have to apply your judgement as to what is happening in that footage and whether it is significant or not. 

“If [the complainant’s] account is true about what happened later, then the fact they were kissing earlier on can of course not begin to justify what happened.”

Western, of Edward Paxman Gardens, was arrested at his home the following day. 

He denies rape, and told the police he had got into bed with the sleeping complainant. 

He said she woke up, after which a conversation was had about sex.

Western told officers they began to have sex, she “began to drop off again”, so he “got off her”. 

He said the complainant awoke and began to shout at him. 

The trial continues.


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