Man denies raping university student in York as she slept

A friend of the rape complainant claimed she saw Marc Ogilve, now  27, whom she did not know, on his knees next to the woman student who had her eyes closed.

“He just sat still and stared at me like a rabbit in the headlights,” she alleged as she gave evidence against him.

She alleged she sent a text to a male friend saying she had just gone into her friend’s room and “some random boy was helping himself to her whilst she was asleep. Please ring us”.

Prosecution barrister Nick Adlington asked her: “Do you have any doubt in your mind when you opened that door, you saw the defendant having sex with (the complainant).”

“No doubt at all,” she responded.

The alleged victim claimed in evidence that she had been woken earlier during the night by a pain and felt that Ogilve was raping her.

She claimed she sent a message to the friend, who was on a night out in the city centre. She claimed she didn’t know what to do, cried for a bit and then fell asleep again.

The friend alleged that when she read the message some time after it was sent, she cut short her night out and returned to the house she and the complainant shared with other students.  She alleged she opened the complainant’s bedroom door and saw Ogilve.

The incident happened when all three were students in York some years ago.

Ogilve, of Half Mile, Pudsey, denies two charges of rape.

Giving evidence, Ogilve claimed he had gone to sleep alongside the complainant and the next thing he knew was waking to see her leave the room before the friend came in and asked him to leave the house.    

He claimed he assumed the complainant had sobered up and decided she didn’t want to be in the same bed as him.

He denied that before the complainant left, the friend had opened the door and seen him as she had described.

Asked by his barrister Nicholas Hammond if the first alleged rape occurred, he replied: “No.”

“Are you sure about that?” he was asked and replied: “100 per cent.”

He made similar replies to identical questions about the second alleged rape and denied that the woman had texted from the bed.

He claimed he had no idea why he was asked to leave the house in the early hours.

The jury has seen texts he sent the complainant the next day asking if she was all right and including: “Sorry if I upset you. I am sorry if I did, I didn’t mean to.”

He claimed he sent that because he didn’t understand why he had been asked to leave and couldn’t understand why she didn’t respond to his texts.

He alleged he had had no expectation of sex between them that night as he had only met the complainant once before that night, and denied that he’d decided to “try it on”.

The jury heard that the complainant had been with her friend and others drinking alcohol in the city centre earlier in the night. She had become separated from her friends and Ogilve had walked her home.

Both told the jury they had agreed nothing sexual would happen, that they were not in a relationship, and they only knew each other casually.

The complainant claimed she let Ogilve stay at her house because she knew he lived in a different part of York and would otherwise have a long walk.

The trial continues.