Preston woman tells jury how Blackpool man denied raping her when she confronted him the next day

Matthew Marcus Terry, 24, of Taylor Terrace, Blackpool, denies raping the woman on two occasions and sexually assaulting two others in Preston in 2018.

The three complainants cannot be identified for legal reasons.

It is alleged Terry raped the woman at an address in the Ashton area of Preston, and a second time at a house party in August 2018, in which he allegedly trapped her in a bedroom.

Giving evidence by a video link at Lancaster's Nightingale Court, she said she had got to know the defendant through the course of her work.

Beverly Hackett, defending, asked her: " You described how in the flat he forced himself upon you and had intercourse with you and you didn't want him to do that.

"You also said after that incident he denied it ever happened in terms of you not wanting to do it?"

She replied: " Yes, the next day I went to speak to him about it and he said I had imagined it, that I hadn't said no, so yes he denied it the next day."

Asked about what she had consumed, she said she had drank two pints of cider before the alleged attack but had switched to Coke and water after spilling a drink.

Miss Hackett asked: " Now he having done that to you, how did that make you feel at the time?"

She replied: " Before I confronted him I was quite angry about it, when he was saying I'd exaggerated it and was making it up I thought - I kind of did believe him - so I felt awkward. I wasn't entirely 100% sure so it was awkward for a while.

"He was so sure about it. I didn't think he was lying."

However, she described how Terry went on to attack her a second time at a house party, despite her telling him 'no' several times.

She said he stood in front of a bedroom door and forced her to have sex with him, adding: "Even when I was saying no he was saying 'yes we have to'."

Asked if she had considered calling out for help to others in the house, she became tearful as she said: " I did, I definitely did.

"But I didn't really want to make a scene, I just wanted to get out of the room. If I scream it will be a big thing."

She told the court afterwards she went into the bathroom and cried and washed her face.

She added: " A big part of it was...I didn't think anyone would believe me."

The court previously heard the allegations involving other women came to light after she disclosed what had happened.

It is alleged he sexually assaulted a second woman who was invited to his home in Preston in March 2018 in which he jumped onto her, tried to kiss her and groped her.

The woman managed to text her ex partner to come and help her.

The third woman alleged she and her boyfriend went back to Terry's home after a night out in the Switch nightclub, and that he sexually assaulted her in his bedroom.

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