A NIGHTCLUB boss denied sexually assaulting a woman or offering other woman cocaine so he could have sex with them but admitted wounding a man in a fight.

Bushwackers owner Darren Pinches, dressed smartly in a dark suit, cried and wiped his eyes with a tissue at Warwick Crown Court yesterday as his defence case began.

The 52-year-old of Bromyard Road, Worcester appeared emotional when mention was made of his family, sometimes puffing on his inhaler when short of breath. He spoke of financial problems and drinking heavily and admitted using cocaine in the past.

It was the third day in a row he cried in the dock.

He told the jury he did not sexually assault a woman in a storeroom at Worcester nightclub Bushwackers or forced a bag of cocaine over her face on New Year’s Day last year. He denied supplying cocaine to a second woman in February 2016 or making an offer of cocaine to a third in September 2015. He acknowledged he washed cocaine down a sink at his home which resulted in police taking him to the ground but denied unlawful possession, claiming the drug had been dropped off at his home at Berkley Gardens, Fernhill Heath for disposal by general manager Mark Humpage after he found a small quantity in a Bushwackers toilet. A document dated January 12, the day before Pinches’s arrest, showing a record of the discovery of a suspected controlled drug described as ‘a bag of white powder’ which read: “Dropped at Darren’s. Safe broken.”

Pinches acknowledge that the word ‘mate’ in a text message sent by his manager was a code word for the discovery of drugs at his clubs. Pinches broke down when he said police arrived at his home, telling him they were investigating an allegation of rape.

“Was that said quietly?” said Mr Burrows.

“No” said Pinches. “I asked them to take me straight down to the police station.”

“Why were you concerned they should do that?” said Mr Burrows.

Pinches sobbed as he said: “Because my children and wife were in the house.”

He told the jury he was the youngest of three brothers brought up in Wednesbury. His parents had run bars and restaurants and he left school at 16. He again became emotional when he referred to the death of his father on February 24, 2016 after he developed dementia.

After questions from his barrister, Michael Burrows QC, he acknowledged previous convictions for shoplifting in November 1984, obstructing a constable in March 1988 and wounding in January 1989. Pinches said the wounding offence involved him throwing a fire extinguisher at a man during a fight in a nightclub which he had admitted. He became involved in Bushwackers in 1993 or 1994 and had always been the owner with brother Craig. When mention was made of Pinches’s wife Jessica, their marriage 13 years ago and their two children he grew red in the face and began to sob, reaching for a tissue. Mr Burrows said: “Take a few moments. Compose yourself.”

He told the jury his wife and children had been present at his home when he was arrested on January 13 last year. Pinches told the jury of financial problems and that a doctor had prescribed him tablets to calm him down. He explained that his skin condition was very itchy and prevented him sleeping and when he had problems with the banks had been ‘drinking heavily’, referring to stress. He said he had used cocaine in the past but was never a frequent user, taking it between 12 and 15 times when he was ‘a lot younger’. Mr Burrows asked Pinches about the allegation that he offered cocaine to a woman in an upstairs room in Browns in February 2015. He said: “She says you have taken cocaine in her presence. Have you?”

“No” replied Pinches.

“Have you offered her cocaine?” said Mr Burrows.

“No” said Pinches.

“Have you ever made any sexual approach to her?” asked Mr Burrows.

“Never” said Pinches. Pinches said the woman had approached him in Browns and spoke about her partner and he suggested the two of them try to sort out their problems. He disputed that he sent a manager to Bottles to request she return to Browns, spiked her drink, offered her cocaine or that he had told her he intended to have sex with her. He said he never took cocaine with a woman and her friend on stairs at the Crypt in Bushwackers in February 2016 or later that night at an apartment at the Quay before engaging in consensual sexual activity. He said: “I could not even recognise her, could not tell you who she looks like.”

He said that he had made ‘normal chit chat’ with the complainant who accuses him of a sexual assault in a Bushwackers storeroom but denies that the attack took place or that he was even in the storeroom with her. The woman said she kicked open a door as she fled but Pinches said ‘there has never been a door there for 23 years’ and, even if there had been, it could not be blocked from outside by a chair as she claimed because the original door would have opened into the room. When asked if he had forced her to take cocaine he replied ‘never’.

The trial continues.