A judge has told jurors to decide on the 'ultimate issue' of whether the complainants are 'truthful and reliable' in the trial of UK Fast founder Lawrence Jones. Mr Jones, 55, denies two offences of rape.
Prosecutors allege that the multimillionaire businessman 'stupefied' two young women with drugs and then raped them at his flat in Salford in the 1990s when he was in his 20s.
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 woman was consensual.
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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 Mr Jones. 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.
On the tenth day of the trial at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Sarah Johnston began her summing up of the case to the six men and six women on the jury.
“It is time for you to return to your task. It is time for you to decide which issues have arisen that you need to resolve,” she began.
“Please bear in mind that it is the Prosecution who must make you sure. You must decide the ultimate issue in the case; if the complainants told you the truth and if it is reliable.”
Judge Johnston reminded jurors of the evidence of Woman A, who described taking an ‘instant disliking’ to Mr Jones, describing him as ‘arrogant’
She said that on one occasion at his flat in Salford he poured her a glass of wine before rolling a spliff and she ‘took a couple of tokes’.
“She described feeling confused and drowsy and not with it at all,” the judge said. She summarised that the woman said she came round to find that Mr Jones was raping her.
Judge Johnston said: “It was put to her in cross examination that it didn't happen, she said that wasn’t true. She said ‘my body didn’t feel like my own’ and said she felt physically incapable of getting up.”
Of Woman B, the judge said the woman gave evidence about being given something to sniff by Mr Jones that made her feel ‘floppy and drunk’. The woman described feeling ‘light headed’ and ‘out of it’ before falling back onto the bed, the judge said.
Judge Johnston summarised that Woman B said the drug made her feel ‘weak’ and ‘helpless’, and said his behaviour after the alleged offence was ‘nasty’ and ‘unnecessary’.
“She said she didn’t think it was rape at the time, because she thought rape was by someone you didn’t know, and that it was supposed to be a struggle and that she hadn’t fought him off. She said she remembered thinking she should keep hold of her underwear just in case,” the judge said.
Judge Johnston referred to agreed facts in the case, as well as a number of statements including evidence from a forensic scientist about various ‘date rape drugs’. The judge will continue summing up the case, including the defence case, tomorrow morning.
Proceeding.
