SHRUGGED AND SAID IT WAS IMMATURE BOASTING TO MY FRIENDS

IN a silent courtroom, Stuart Olding raised his right arm to show jurors how he claimed the young woman at the centre of the rape trial beckoned him into the bedroom.

Members of the packed public gallery leaned forward as he tried to outline how his alleged victim had invited him to join her and Paddy Jackson in his teammate’s bed.

Dressed in a grey suit jacket, light blue shirt, purple tie and beige trousers, he told the hushed courtroom 12 of Belfast Crown Court how he had been invited by her to enter the bedroom by extending her arm towards him.

Facing Mr Olding, Prosecutor Toby Hedworth QC, dressed in a black cloak and wig, put it to the rugby player that he was fully aware of the young woman saying, ‘please no, not him too’ when he entered the room.

Mr Olding disagreed. Leaning forward in his witness box seat towards the microphone and looking at the jury of eight men and three women, he said: ‘No. I was invited in by [her] and that’s the reason I went in.’

Mr Hedworth asked if he hadn’t thought ‘oops’ and left immediately when he saw his friend in a bedroom with a young woman. He asked Mr Olding to demonstrate how he claimed the alleged victim invited him into the room.

The 24-year-old appeared to hesitate for a split second before lifting his right arm horizontally to shoulder height with his palm turned towards the ceiling.

He also turned his head to the right towards the front of the court as the jurors intently watched the gesture he was demonstrating.

MR Olding had earlier told the jury: ‘[The woman] turned around and held out her hand as an invitation to stay. I’m sure of that.

‘I closed the door and went over to the bed and started to kiss [her].’

Mr Olding had earlier left the thick-glassed panelled dock which he has shared with the three other defendants for almost six weeks and entered the witness box, taking a sip of water before the questioning began.

Throughout the three-and-a half hour questioning by defence and prosecution, he mostly sat leaning forward, extending his head closer to the microphone every time he responded.

He directed his answers to the men and women sitting in the jury box opposite him as instructed to do by his barrister Frank O’Donoghoe QC.

During his cross-examination, Mr Olding was handed transcripts of WhatsApp and text messages. When asked about his ‘precious secrets’ response to a text from a friend saying ‘Any sluts get f ***** ’, he leaned towards the microphone and replied that it was a reference to the Lord of the Rings. ‘It’s a nonsense comment. ‘It is not referring to anything specific,’ he said.

Looking occasionally at the document before him, with its timeline of messages shared among Mr Olding and his friends, he continued to answer questions about the exchanges, taking occasional sips of water.

He was asked about a WhatsApp message he had sent to a group of friends, including Paddy Jackson, after the alleged attack, which said: ‘We are top s **** ers.’

He seemed to shrug his shoulders slightly and tilt his head as he told the crowded court: ‘It was immature boasting to my friends.’

Looking towards the jury, he said he felt ‘very embarrassed’ to be sitting there reading them. He was ‘certainly not proud’ and knew he shouldn’t have done it, he said.

There was what seemed a significant pause as he looked down briefly and then back at the jury as his barrister studied his notes.

EARLIER, when asked about who was in the taxi from Ollie’s nightclub back to Mr Jackson’s house that night, Mr Olding said that he did not remember or know if he was there.

A stifled laugh rippled through the full to capacity public gallery as he said: ‘I know he [Paddy Jackson] is hard to miss, but I don’t remember seeing him there [in the taxi].’

When asked about his friends, he told the court he had known Iain Henderson ‘since he was born’.

He said: ‘I am very good friends with Iain Henderson.

‘I have known him since I was born.

‘Our dads are good friends,’ Mr Olding added.

Just after 3pm, Judge Patricia Smyth, with her black-rimmed glasses perched on her nose, thanked Mr Olding.

He smiled politely back at her before leaving the witness box, his day done.