A FORMER South Wales Argus worker is on trial after allegedly sexually assaulting a woman after a night out in Newport city centre, a court has heard.

Gareth Brown, of Islwyn Street in Abercarn, denies the assault relating to an incident at the Travelodge hotel in Newport nearly two years ago.

A jury at Cardiff Crown Court heard today how 42-year-old Brown had been on a night out in May, 2013.

Prosecutor Janet McDonald said the claimant had taken drugs, namely M-Cat, that night while the defendant had taken cocaine. Both had been drinking on the night.

The defendant and the claimant headed back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning after going to a number of bars in the city centre, the court heard.

Ms McDonald said the claimant, who was wearing shorts belonging to Brown as she went to sleep, woke up to find the defendant performing a sexual act on her.

The claimant was “afraid to confront him”, Ms McDonald said. Ms McDonald said the woman felt Brown "was doing something she had never expected of him. She was very vulnerable. She pretended she was stirring from sleep and to pretend she did not know it was happening to put him off.”

Ms McDonald then said the woman called the defendant by her boyfriend’s name and said she was cold, by which time the defendant had stopped and gone to the bathroom.

The jury was told that an official police complaint was not made until December of that year.

Judge Neil Bidder QC told jurors that delays in proceedings since the defendant was first interviewed by police in March last year was purely down to “poor administration” and was not the fault of the claimant, the defendant, or the witnesses.

Proceeding