A YOUNG woman who says a nightclub boss forced her to take cocaine and sexually assaulted her was seen crying and ‘curled up in a ball’ in a Worcester street in the wake of the alleged attack, a court heard.

Friends of the complainant gave evidence from the witness box in the ongoing trial of Darren Pinches at Warwick Crown Court yesterday afternoon.

The 52-year old denies administering cocaine with intent to overpower or stupefy the complainant to enable him to engage in sexual activity and sexual assault against the then 20-year woman in a storeroom on the first floor of city nightclub Bushwackers on New Year’s Day last year.

Pinches further denies possession of a class A drug (cocaine) on January 13 when police arrived at his home in Berkley Gardens, Fernhill Heath to arrest him.

Pinches also denies supplying cocaine to a second woman between February 9 and 15, 2016 and offering to supply cocaine to a third woman between September 3 and 5, 2015.

One female friend of the complainant said Pinches described her as ‘glamorous’ when he spoke to her in Bushwackers in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

She told a jury that manager Harry Meads later said ‘come outside, quick!’ in what she described as ‘an assertive manner’.

She said they found the complainant at one of the exits by The Cross. The witness referred to her as ‘almost hyperventilating’. She added: “She was curled up in a ball on the floor.”

When asked by Ben Aina QC, prosecuting, how the complainant was dressed she said she had ‘no shoes on’ with ‘mascara down her face’ and ‘her lipstick was all smudged’.

The witness said she was handed the complainant’s shoes, coat and bag by Harry Meads. She said the complainant told her Pinches had ‘spread her legs apart and put cocaine on her nose'.

The complainant stayed at the home of the witness and, with her sister, tried to ‘take her mind off what happened’, she told the court.

Another friend of the complainant said she had spoken to Pinches in Bushwackers earlier on that morning by the champagne bar, referring to his speech as ‘rather slurred’.

She also described the complainant as ‘curled up in a ball’. The witness said: “She was upset. She was crying. She could not really breathe when she was trying to speak.”

She said the complainant told her she felt ‘trapped’ and kept saying ‘I didn’t want to’ and that Pinches had exposed himself to her. The witness added: “She said she was scared. She was upset with Darren. She said Darren tried to get her to do coke.”

The trial continues.