Jurors in the trial of Lawrence Jones, who denies two charges of rape, have been urged to ‘not make assumptions’. The 55-year-old, former founder of tech company UK Fast is alleged to have 'stupefied' two young women with unknown drugs before raping them on separate occasions at a flat in Salford in the early 1990s.
Mr Jones, of Brooks Drive in Hale Barns, denies two offences of rape and says he never met one of his accusers and says sex he had with a second women was consensual.
One woman, described as Woman A in press reports of the trial, alleges she was raped at a flat in Salford in 1993 after drinking a glass of red wine and taking a couple of 'tokes' of a spliff rolled by the defendant.
The second woman, Woman B, claims she was urged to take a sniff from a medicine bottle containing a clear liquid. She alleges she instantly felt 'really really drunk' and was raped. READ MORE: 'They trusted you, with consideration and kindness - and you betrayed them' READ MORE: 'Highly respected' doctor accused of sexually abusing three female patients, court hears On the ninth day of the trial at Manchester Crown Court, Mr Jones' barrister Eleanor Laws KC gave her closing speech to the jury. “We live in a country where we say that if you make an allegation of something sexual happening to you, you are not expected to make that allegation a day, a week, a month or a year later,” Ms Laws began.
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