Man,18, denies rape

A TEENAGER is standing trial accused of raping two girls and sexually assaulted another before laughing at her.

Jack William John O’Shea, of Valley View, Whitworth, 18 denies two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.

Prosecutor Paul Cummings told a jury at Burnley Crown Court that the allegations came to light after one of the victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, contacted her mother.

He said: “[She] sent a text message to her mother indicating she wanted to speak to her urgently.

“[The complainant] then disclosed that she had been raped.”

The jury was told that the police were contacted.

Another girl later claimed that she had been raped by the defendant.

Both complainants told police in recorded video interviews that Mr O’Shea had raped them and on both occasions put his hands over their mouths to stop them from shouting. The court heard that one of the girls said she initially did not tell anyone ‘because she was scared of getting into trouble’ and the other girl said she was ‘embarrassed and scared to tell anyone’.

Mr Cummings told the jury that Mr O’Shea sexually touched another girl on the bottom and chest and when she told him to stop he ‘would simply laugh about it and thought it was funny’.

The jury was told that on another occasion Mr O’Shea asked her to sexually touch him but she was refused and left ‘shocked’.

Mr Cummings told the jury: “All of those complaints have been examined and were then put to the defendant in interview.

“When asked about these allegations he denies that anything like this happened at all.

“He said he has no sexual interest at all in females. He told the police that when he was younger he had dated a number of girls and had girlfriends but he has never been sexually aroused by females.

“He therefore says the suggestion that he had sexually assaulted [the complainants] is simply not true because he has no sexual interest in the opposite sex.”

PROCEEDING

‘He denies anything like this happened at all’