Bolton: Verdict on Bradshawgate alleyway rape trial

Prashant Gurung, 20, was accused of committing the rape just off Bradshawgate shortly after 5am in September last year after a night out.

He was arrested two days later and claimed ever since that the sex had been consensual, but has now been convicted by a jury following a trial lasting most of this week.

Opening the case, prosecutor Geoff Whelan said: “Even he accepts that during the encounter she was crying.

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

The trial took place at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Whelan told the court how Gurung, of Manchester Road, Bolton, had ushered his victim down an alleyway that night “under the pretence of helping her.”

He said it was “extremely dark” when Gurung then forced the young woman onto the bonnet of a car and raped her.

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.’”

Afterwards, CCTV footage showed what looked like a “congratulatory hand slap” between Gurung and one of his friends just before 5.20am.

The young woman had herself given evidence over the course of the trial and Mr Whelan commended her as an “impressive witness.”

He said: “On her evidence along you can be sure that she was raped, but you have more.”

Mr Whelan argued that CCTV footage and expert witnesses also backed up the case against Gurung.

Throughout the trial, presided over by Judge Tom Gilbart, the 20-year-old defendant maintained his innocence, having pleaded not guilty to both assault by penetration and to rape.

He claimed that and his friend had offered to help the woman find “her sister” before he “randomly” asked her for sex.

Taking to the witness box, Gurung, assisted as times by a Nepalese interpreter, claimed what followed was consensual.

He said: “At that time I was a little bit tipsy but I knew everything I was doing at that moment.”

He added: “After I asked her for a kiss, I saw the alleyway so I said let’s go to the alleyway.”

He added: “I don’t feel like she was drunk or something that she doesn’t understand me at that moment.”

Gurung told the court that that night had been his first experience of a British nightclub and that he had drunk a total of three bottles of beer.

Rebecca Filletti, defending, reminded the court that Gurung had chosen to give evidence before the court and had not tried to evade police after the incident last September.

She also pointed out that he had not made any attempt to hide his face on the CCTV footage shown to the court

She said: “Does this make sense if he thought he had done something wrong?”

Following deliberations over two days the jury of eight men and four women found Gurung not guilty of assault by penetration, but found him guilty of rape.

Gurung was taken from the dock and back into custody.

He will be brought back to Bolton Crown Court on April 28 this year to learn his fate.