A ‘POWERFUL’ nightclub boss forced cocaine on a young woman before sexually assaulting her because he felt ‘untouchable’, a court heard.

Club owner Darren Pinches was said by the prosecution to have carried out the alleged sexual assault at Bushwackers in Worcester after forcing a bag full of cocaine into a woman’s face.

The 52-year-old, of Bromyard Road in Worcester, denies administering a substance (cocaine) with intent to stupefy or overpower the complainant to enable him to engage in sexual activity and sexual assault against her on January 1 last year.

He further denies possession of cocaine on January 13 last year, supplying cocaine between February 9 and 15, 2016 to another woman and offering to supply cocaine to a third woman between September 3 and 5, 2015.

Ben Aina QC, prosecuting, opened the case to the jury of six men and six women at Warwickshire Justice Centre yesterday (Friday).

He told them: “It’s the prosecution case that Darren Pinches was a powerful man. He owned clubs and managed many staff. The incidents you will be concerned with all occurred on his premises.

"The prosecution say he knew he could control the CCTV system within his premises and the Crown say he knew that many members of his staff would be too frightened to co-operate with the police. In short, the prosecution say he thought he was untouchable.”

Mr Aina said the first complainant, now 22, was attacked inside a first floor private office in Bushwackers as the club was closing at about 5.15am on New Year’s Day last year.

There was a long queue for the toilet so two women decided to use one upstairs. She said Pinches and the complainant’s female friend snorted cocaine. However, the complainant herself refused his alleged offer and felt ‘uncomfortable’. The complainant did not want to be left alone with Pinches but her friend ‘laughed and walked out, closing the door behind her’.

Mr Aina said: “Mr Pinches stood in front of the door and said ‘you’re not going anywhere. Sit down’.”

The prosecutor said Pinches then prepared three lines of cocaine which the complainant pretended she was taking. Pinches, upon realising she was not snorting the class A drug, is said to have sworn.

Mr Aina said: “He grabbed the bag containing the cocaine and forcibly put it over her nose with his hand on the back of her head. She panicked and she inhaled.”

Pinches was then said to have said in crude terms that he wanted to have sex with her. She told him she did not want to have sex with him and was on her period.

“He didn’t care,” said Mr Aina. “He grabbed her shoulders. He grabbed the top of her straps and pulled her top down, exposing her breasts and then kissed her chest area. She didn’t want any of this. She pushed him off. He was not going to be deterred.”

Pinches is then alleged to have grabbed her private parts causing her pain and pulled down his own trousers and boxer shorts so she could see his ‘small, flaccid penis’.

By now the complainant says she was shouting quite loudly and that Pinches placed his hand over her mouth. Pinches is said then to have pulled his trousers up and called the complainant ‘a slag’.

Mr Aina said: “She punched him in the throat, ran to the door, kicked it open and ran down the stairs. She was crying. She was shouting.”

The court heard how the complainant was initially scared to report the matter to police but was persuaded to do so by her mother who told her ‘he might do the same to other girls’.

The second complainant, also now 22, said that Pinches had been snorting cocaine off an oval mirror in an area known as ‘the Crypt’ at Bushwackers. She said she was drunk and had snorted about half a line and was then taken to another of the venues owned by Pinches called the Quay where there was consensual sexual activity.

The third woman, now 44, received a message that Pinches needed to speak to her urgently at Browns in Worcester. She says in a private office Pinches offered her cocaine, telling her ‘it’s our secret babe’ but she refused.

Mr Aina said: “ She described feeling really odd. She thought either Mr Pinches or someone in his employment had spiked her drink.” She said a barman came upstairs and told her that her taxi was ready which made Pinches angry and he told him to ‘knock next time’.

She was confused as she had not ordered a taxi. The complainant believes the barman was trying to stop her being alone with Pinches.

The woman describes Pinches sweeping items off a table and propositioning her for sex before she claimed she needed the toilet and escaped via a fire exit onto South Quay.

The prosecution also say traces of cocaine were found on a speaker in the office at Bushwackers where the alleged sexual assault happened and that Pinches tried to dispose of cocaine by flushing it down the sink at his home at Berkley Gardens, Fernhill Heath on January 13 last years when police arrived to arrest him. However it was recovered, say the prosecution, and found to be of the same rare type as that found on the speaker. It was analysed and said to contain paracetamol and a cattle worming drug said by the prosecution to be responsible for lesions on the legs of Pinches which had been referred to by one of the complainants.

The trial continues.