A MAN has gone on trial accused of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another while all three were students at Durham University.

Louis Michael Richardson, who was a student at Josephine Butler College and secretary of the prestigious Durham Union Society debating club, is charged with raping one fellow student and sexually assaulting her by partially pulling down her dress and sexually assaulting another twice.

Mr Richardson, now 21, denies all four charges and his trial began at Durham Crown Court this morning (Tuesday, January 5).

The rape is said to have taken place at Mr Richardson’s student house, on Church Street, Durham, on March 20-21, 2014.

He said he would take the woman, who was in her own words “crazy drunk”, home from Klute nightclub and look after her, the court heard.

But her next memory is of waking up naked in his bed the next morning, at which point he joked she had been “rubbish” and “unresponsive”.

When the two discussed the incident later, Mr Richardson said the woman had said: “No, I’m too drunk” and called him by another name.

Prosecutor Paul Cleasby said it painted a disturbing picture of a very drunk girl who had said “no”, but Mr Richardson had gone on with the intercourse “despite her protestations”.

The second charge dates from May 26, 2014, when Mr Richardson is accused of undoing the woman’s dress, exposing her bra, and saying: “Get your t*** out. Everyone else has seen them.”

Later that night, Mr Richardson is said to have demanded the woman perform sex acts upon him, saying it was the least she could do as he had paid for her dinner.

The charges relating to the second woman date from October 8, 2014. The court heard the woman had felt unwell at a student house party and gone upstairs to sleep.

But when she awoke she found Mr Richardson with one hand down her top, touching her breasts over her bra, and the other down her leggings, touching her intimately over her underwear.

Mr Richardson, of St Helier, Jersey, denies all charges and the trial continues.