THE jury in a Brynmawr rape trial has retired to consider its verdicts.

Sebastian Smith, 26, denies one charge of rape and one charge of sexual assault by penetration – both of which were allegedly committed in 2020 against the same woman, while the two watched a film together on a bed.

The trial at Cardiff Crown Court heard the alleged victim told Smith to “stop” sexual activity with her but “he took no notice”.

The court heard how, at one stage, the complainant “grabbed” Smith’s penis over his clothes and asked him: “How would you like it if I touched you?”

Smith, in evidence given to the court on Thursday, said the pair had been “play fighting and kissing” and when she said no to sex, he “went straight out”.

Today (Friday), John Ryan, prosecuting, invited the jurors to consider the two “markedly different accounts” put forward by the complainant and Smith.

“One of them is lying – the question is who?” he asked them. “Why would [the alleged victim] lie about what happened to her? There’s no reason.

“Why would Mr Smith lie? The obvious answer is to get himself out of trouble.”

He asked the jury to consider messages the complainant sent to Smith after the alleged incident.

The court heard those messages included her saying “I’m not OK” and that Smith had sex with her “without my permission”.

“How did Mr Smith respond?” Mr Ryan asked. “That he was sorry – he invited you to believe he wasn’t sorry for the rape but for upsetting her – [and] not to go to the police.

“The important thing is not once did he suggest she was consenting.

“Why not challenge her as she was challenging him about raping her?”

Jenny Yeo, defending, said Smith was “clearly a scared young man” who “didn’t want the trauma to his family of being accused in that way”.

She said the complainant had written to Smith before the day in question, saying “how much she missed him”.

The two had “settled down” to watch a film and the complainant “had her legs draped over Mr Smith’s”.

The alleged victim “made him believe she’d be a willing participant in a sexual encounter”, Ms Yeo told the jury.

There was “no dispute” from the complainant that she “at some stage touches his penis” and Smith “believed she was a willing partner”.

After the alleged incident “he didn’t carry on to please himself – he stopped almost instantly”, Ms Yeo said, adding: “He clearly took her change of heart seriously.”

Jurors were earlier told Smith, of George Street, has no previous convictions recorded against him.

The jury in the trial before judge David Wynn Morgan retired this afternoon to consider their verdict.