A SCHOOLTEACHER has gone on trial accused of raping two women while “drunk” at a Christmas party.

Jack Crosse, 32, a maths teacher at Llanishen High School, Cardiff, faces three counts of rape allegedly committed at a gym in Pontypool in December 2019.

The defendant, from Caerphilly, denies the charges and claims any sexual activity with the complainants was consensual.

Clare Wilks, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court: “This trial involves allegations of rape made by two different women.

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“They both allege that they were raped by the defendant during separate incidents but on the same night, Friday, December 13 into the early hours of December 14, when they each attended a Christmas party being held at a gym in Pontypool.”

The jury were told tickets had been sold for the party which included drinks and the gym had been turned into a bar and a dancefloor for the night.

The prosecutor said: “One of the people who attended the party was the defendant Jack Crosse.

“During the night he was drinking alcohol and the prosecution case is he was seen by several witnesses acting in a sexually inappropriate way.”

Ms Wilks said of the first complainant: “As she was sober, she noticed immediately how tactile the defendant was and she thought he was quite drunk because of the way he was behaving and stumbling.

“But her overall impression of him was that she thought he was a nice guy.”

Crosse is alleged to have raped her after they had engaged in a consensual sex act.

Of the second complainant, Ms Wilks told the court: “She said the defendant kept going up to her and danced around her and she describes him as grabbing her whilst they were dancing.

“She said she found him to be persistent, she tried to be polite and just moved away from him.”

Later on, Crosse is accused of raping her after leading her into a “dark storage room”.

The prosecutor said: “She said once there, the defendant cornered her and started to kiss her.

“She told him she wanted to go but he tried to persuade her otherwise, saying she was a good kisser and telling her how pretty she was.”

It is claimed he forced himself upon her, pulled her trousers down and raped her twice.

Miss Wilks added: “The prosecution say the defendant, drunk as he was, couldn’t care less whether they were consenting or not and that he was determined to do what he wanted to do to each of them.

“The prosecution say that those acts amount to acts of rape and that he knew that.”

Crosse, of Heol Ysgubor, Caerphilly, is represented by Kevin Seal.

The trial before Judge Michael Fitton QC is expected to last seven days.