Two shattered young men and the question: Why did these rape cases ever get to court?

Three-year ordeal of accused after a student friend asked HIM to bed

A MAN accused of raping a student who claimed she woke up on top of him after a drunken night out has been cleared after a threeyear ordeal.

Joshua Lines was invited to stay in her room at her halls of residence having spent the evening together drinking beer and prosecco.

The pair, who were described as having a platonic friendship, fell asleep together on the bed while watching a Disney movie.

But she claimed she was woken up several hours later by the sound of a laptop falling off her bed and find herself on top of Mr Lines with her pyjama bottoms pulled down and him having sex with her.

She said she fled in tears to her en-suite bathroom and locked herself in for several hours.

He later sent the Manchester University student a Facebook message saying ‘What’s happened?’ to which she replied: ‘I don’t want anything to do with you.’

Mr Lines, who claimed he had been too drunk to remember whether the pair had sex, was later charged with rape over the encounter that took place in November 2014. He sat through two trials in which both he and his accuser gave evidence and which culminated in jurors in both cases failing to agree on a verdict.

During his retrial, he told the jury her allegation couldn’t have been true ‘because of the logistics of it’, saying: ‘She woke up on top of me with her legs either side, how would I get her there?’

Finally this week Mr Lines, 23, whose father runs a software design company, was formally cleared of rape on the directions of a judge.

Prosecutors said they would not be seeking a third trial after speaking to the woman, also 23.

Prosecutor Justin Hayhoe said: ‘The Crown do not seek to persuade the court that this is an exceptional case. In these circumstances I offer no evidence.’

Initially Mr Lines held his head in his hands in the dock when he feared he might face another trial.

He looked relieved when he learnt the case was over. He declined to comment after the hearing. The judge, Recorder Rowena Goode, had told him: ‘We have heard what has been said – that means we must draw a line under this matter.’

Earlier the jury in the retrial at Manchester Crown Court was told that Mr Lines and the woman had been friends for three years.

A medical examination carried out on her several days after the alleged incident showed no traces of his DNA.

Giving evidence at his retrial, Mr Lines said she had been flirtatious on the night in question and when they walked back to her room he felt drunk and she was stumbling.

Mr Lines said he felt the room ‘spinning’ and fell asleep, waking up to find her head on his chest. ‘We had slept in the same bed before,’ he added.

A friend of Mr Lines, Melissa Pruntey, told the court the rape allegation was out of character.

‘He has always treated girls with respect and had never taken advantage of anyone,’ she said.

‘We have both slept in the same bed when intoxicated and not once did I worry that he would act inappropriately with me.’

Another friend, Mikolaj Tomcyzk, said: ‘He has never done anything to endanger anyone else and numerous times I have seen him being caring and friendly. I have never seen him doing anything inappropriate no matter how intoxicated.’

According to his social media profile, Mr Lines attended sixth form college in Wigan before doing admin work at his father’s company.

‘Locked herself in bathroom’