ALLEGED VICTIM IN CRICKETER RAPE TRIAL BREAKS DOWN IN COURT: ‘I was tipsy ...but well aware of what I was doing’

A WOMAN alleged to have been raped by a cricketer broke down after being asked about her “hazy” memory of consensual sex with one of his team-mates.

The complainant – who cannot be identified – asked for a break in her testimony after becoming tearful during questioning on behalf of Worcestershire all-rounder Alex Hepburn.

Hepburn, 23, denies raping the woman, who told the court she was initially asleep and wrongly thought she was having sex with former Worcestershire batsman Joe Clarke.

A jury at Worcester Crown Court has been told both Hepburn and Mr Clarke were involved in a sexual conquest “game” – after setting up a “stat chat” page to keep a record of sex with women.

During her evidence on the second day of the trial, the alleged victim rejected a suggestion that her memory of her initial sexual contact with Hepburn was “not completely clear”.

Hepburn’s lawyer, Michelle Heeley QC, asked the woman whether she was “fairly drunk” after drinking wine, prosecco and spirits during a night out prior to the alleged rape in April 2017.

She responded: “I was tipsy but well aware of what I was doing.”

After the woman told the court some of the details of what happened on the night were “a bit hazy”, Ms Heeley asked her whether she had remained still during sex with Hepburn.

The witness, giving evidence from behind a curtain, then began sobbing and accepted the judge’s offer of a break in the proceedings.

Following a 15-minute adjournment, Ms Heeley suggested that Hepburn and the woman had “moved around the bed” during the alleged rape over a period of at least 20 minutes.

The alleged victim told the jury: “I was asleep. From what I can remember I was lying still on my back.”

During her evidence, the woman conceded that she did not have a “100 per cent clear” memory of having consensual sex with Clarke before the alleged rape.

But she denied that she had felt Hepburn get into bed, woken up, opened her eyes, begun to kiss him and then performed a sex act on him.

Ms Heeley said: “The fact it continued for 10 minutes, I suggest, shows it was something you were actively enjoying and engaging in?”

The woman responded: “No. My eyes weren’t open.”

Ms Heeley went on: “Nothing that you had said or done would have told Mr Hepburn that you weren’t enjoying this sex?”

The woman replied: pushed him off when realised, but before, no.”

Earlier in the trial, the jury was told Hepburn raped the woman after helping to set up a sexual conquest “game” with friends on WhatsApp.

Jurors heard the victim initially believed she was “I I DENIAL: Alex Hepburn still in bed with Mr Clarke, who had left the room to be sick, after waking up to find Australian-born Hepburn performing a sex act on her.

Opening the prosecution’s case on Monday, Miranda Moore QC said the alleged victim realised she was not with Mr Clarke when he spoke in an Australian accent.

The prosecutor told Worcester Crown Court a member of the public dialled 999 in the early hours after finding the complainant “distressed and crying” in the street in April 2017.

Ms Moore said the woman had sex with Hepburn as she believed he was “the man she fell asleep with” and was left horrified when she realised he was not Mr Clarke.

Hepburn denies two counts of rape, claiming the alleged victim was awake and that initial kissing led to consensual sexual contact.