Bolton: Trial opens into alleged Bradshawgate rape

Prashant Gurung, 20, was arrested at his home on September 19 last year after an allegation he raped a woman on Bradshawgate in the early hours of September 17.

Brought before Bolton Crown Court this week, Gurung maintained his innocence as Geoff Whelan, prosecuting, opened the case.

Mr Whelan said: “The prosecution’s case is that this was a stranger rape, targeting a young woman who the defendant says was drunk and a bit unconscious.

“Even he accepts that during the encounter she was crying.

The trial was opened at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

“The defendant could not possibly have believed that she was consenting.”

Mr Whelan told the jury of eight men and four women that Gurung, of Manchester Road, Bolton, came across his alleged victim in Bolton town centre that night after she had been on a night out.

The woman had become separated from her group when she came across Gurung with a group of his friends just after 5am.

According to Mr Whelan, CCTV footage showed Gurung bringing the young woman down an alleyway off Bradshawgate.

He said: “The defendant ushered her down an alleyway on the pretence of helping her.”

Mr Whelan said it was “extremely dark” when Gurung pushed her onto the bonnet of a car and then assaulted her and raped her.

A police van had been stationed on Bradshawgate that night and according to Mr Whelan, the woman approached Police Sergeant Mark O’Brien saying “I’ve been raped.”

Mr Whelan said that CCTV showed what looked like a “congratulatory hand slap” between Gurung and one of his friends just before 5.20am.

Following his arrest on September 19, Gurung was interviewed under caution by police the next day.

He accepted that he had had sex with the woman but said it had been consensual.

Gurung claimed that he and his friend had tried to help the woman find her sister, but Mr Whelan said he did not accept this.

He said: “An offer to find her sister is unlikely to come to a conclusion down a dark alleyway, which is where he led her.”

In an interview carried out with police, played for the court on video, the woman said that she did not know Gurung and all she remembered the man saying to her was “no cry.”

She said: “He took five minutes-ish ,it felt like ages but I’m guessing it was about five minutes.

“He just kept saying ‘no cry’, I’m pretty sure that’s all he ended up saying to me.”

Gurung was charged with assault by penetration and rape, both of which he denies.

Rebecca Filletti, defending, is expected to make her case for the defence over the coming days.

The trial, before Judge Tom Gilbart, is set to continue over this coming week.