Oliver Pearless, 23, denies allegation of New Year’s Eve Cold Ash rape after night out in Newbury

A man raped a woman after a New Year’s Eve night out in Newbury a jury has heard.

However Oliver Pearless, of Berkeley Road, denies one count of rape which allegedly occurred during the early hours of New Years Day in 2020.

The 23-year-old had been out clubbing in the since-closed Zinc nightclub, in Market Place, Newbury, with the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and some other friends, the court was told.

The woman told police that the pair had shared a bed together in a property in Cold Ash after their night out in Newbury, and this is where the alleged rape occurred — a jury heard in Reading Crown Court last week.

She told jurors that Mr Pearless tried to kiss her but she turned her face away and repeatedly said “no”.

He then allegedly got on top of her on all fours, pulled her crossed legs apart and penetrated her.

She said: “I said no and stop so many times but he wouldn’t. I could not stop it from happening.”

Clare Evans, defending, suggested that the woman had ample time and ability to stop the sexual intercourse from happening, which is something the woman strongly denied.

After the alleged rape occurred, the woman discussed it with her friend, who then relayed this information to Mr Pearless several days later, the court heard.

The jury was told that Mr Pearless then sent a message to the woman, which said: “I cannot comprehend my own shame. I am sorry for what you went through.

“I was severely drunk and my recollection of the night is minimal. The nature of how we ended up together that night miscommunicated to me your intentions.

“Your objections during to me, I thought were in reference to [removed] being in the next room.

“I am dearly sorry but this is not my style.

“Hearing what I put you through is physically shaming me so I can’t comprehend how it is for you. I hope this can relieve you of some of your stress.”

Mr Pearless denies the woman’s allegations and said the incident was a consensual sexual encounter.

He told the court that the woman’s allegations were “completely wrong” and that he was “100 per cent” sure that their sexual encounter was consensual.

He added that the woman “encouraged” his clothes off and took off her own, before touching him sexually and allowing him to penetrate her.

Mr Pearless told jurors that he only sent the message to the woman because of the “nature of what she had accused me of”.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson stated that Mr Pearless’s recollection of events was a “pack of lies”, and the initial message he sent to the woman hinted to the truth of the matter.

In her closing speech, Ms Evans stated that the woman’s account of the alleged rape “did not have a grain of truth” within it.

In reference to the message Mr Pearless sent to the woman, she said: “His first thought is not to protest his innocence. His first thought was to try and comfort her, try to help her.”

The trial, expected to conclude this week, continues.