A jury listened to a series of professional and expert witnesses who described in great detail the process by which they determined the evidence of DNA and semen belonging to a man who denied twice raping a gay woman, insisting it was entirely consensual and at her instigation. The jury of eight men and four woman at Plymouth Crown Court had previously heard how the woman, who is in her 20s, had gone out with two friends - a male and a woman from Devon - in Plymouth on a night in late April last year.
After visiting a number of pubs and nightclubs she headed homewards on foot along Union Street in the early hours whereupon she got into a car which pulled up beside her which she believed was a taxi. However, the driver - Yuseab Woldeab of Wilton Street, Millbridge - claimed that the woman approached him, said he was her "type" and insisted she would be going home with him.
The court had heard Woldeab, aged 28, had been at the Revolution nightclub earlier in the evening, at the same time the woman and her friends had been, but had not spoken to her. He had also told police he had not drunk any alcohol.
Read more: Plymouth rape trial: Man accused of raping gay woman claims it was consensual. CCTV footage showed him walking home in the early hours and then driving his car about the city centre, parking up at Colin Campbell Court car park and then in Octagon Street before he travelled along Union Street where he stopped on a pelican crossing next to the young woman.
He claims he drove her to his home where she initiated the sexual act. However, he told police he ejaculated onto the carpet and at no point did he attempt to have anal sex with her. The young woman, who told detectives she was gay, said she was in a happy relationship with a woman and had never had sex with a man. She claimed Woldeab had forced himself upon her and she recalled feeling severe pain as he carried out both acts. She explained that also present was a police officer, a crisis officer and the young woman's mother.
