A FORMER Colchester United footballer accused of raping a young woman while she slept has appeared before a court.
Callum Harriott, who played for the U’s between 2019 and 2021, is alleged to have carried out the attack in late November 2019 during a night out in Colchester.
Ipswich Crown Court heard Harriott, 28, met the complainant in a bar before they both headed to a nightclub with their respective friends.
Wayne Cleaver, prosecuting, said at about 2.20am the ex-U’s winger took the woman back to his home in Rotary Way, Colchester, before proceeding to have non-consensual sex with her.
Harriott, now of Beech Road, Biggin Hill, Greater London, denies one count of rape.
The court heard Harriott, who scored 12 goals in 64 appearances for the U’s, approached the complainant in the bar and told her he wanted to have sex with her.
“She had no interest but his intentions, it seems, were already apparent. What he wanted from her was already pretty clear,” said Mr Cleaver.
When the pair were in the nightclub, the court heard the woman was given a vodka and Red Bull which saw her spiral into being an “incapable” state.
The moments which followed saw her topple into a wall in the club and fall into a group of people on the dancefloor before vomiting in the High Street outside.
The complainant and her friend then left but were followed by Harriott and another male, Mr Cleaver added.
The footballer then drove her home to his flat where she collapsed on the floor outside, before eventually going into the property and falling asleep on a bed.
“The next thing she remembered was being awoken by a shadowy figure behind her,” said the prosecutor.
He said she claimed Harriott was already having sex with her.
“He had taken this drunken, staggering, vomiting, drug-using stranger back to his flat. She went to bed and slept.
“He rather oddly decided in those circumstances to undress down to his boxer shorts.”
Harriot would later admit to police when arrested in December 2019 that the pair did have sex, but argued it was consensual.
The trial continues.
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