Ched Evans rape trial told footballer never forced woman to have sex

Port Vale defender Clayton McDonald, 23, and Sheffield United striker Ched Evans, also 23, deny the alleged attack on the 19-year-old complainant at a North Wales hotel in May last year.

The woman told police she has no memory of the incident and the prosecution says she was too drunk to consent to sex.

Giving evidence at Caernarfon Crown Court, McDonald, of Marys Gate, Crewe, Cheshire, said he met the complainant in the street following a night out with childhood friend Evans, of Ashtree Gardens, Millhouse Green, Penistone, South Yorkshire.

He said Evans, whose mother lives in Rhyl, had invited him and others for a bank holiday night out in the seaside town on May 29.

But because there was not enough space at Evans’s mother’s house, the Sheffield United star had booked him into a Premier Inn hotel nearby.

After visiting bars, the group ended up at a takeaway where there was a disturbance and McDonald, who described himself as “a little bit drunk”, decided to head for a taxi back to his hotel.

He said: “I got to a corner and turned around and saw a girl walk up to me.

“I said ‘Hiya, where are you going?’ and she said ‘Where are you going?’ I said I was going to my hotel and she said ‘I’m coming with you’.”

Asked by Lloyd Morgan, defending, how the complainant appeared, the footballer said she was “walking fine”, holding a pizza box, and he was able to understand what she was saying.

“She was coming across very clear,” he added.

He flagged down a taxi and during the drive to the hotel, McDonald said he asked her name, where her friends were and if she had had a good night, and she replied to all his questions.

He also said he sent a text message to Evans saying he had “met a girl”.

At the hotel, he said they walked in “linking arms” and went to his room where they sat on the bed and she immediately began touching his genitals.

“I opened the door to room 14 and she walked in and put the pizza box on the side and sat on the bed,” he said.

“I sat next to her and that’s when she grabbed me.”

Asked by Mr Morgan if he had forced her to do anything, the defendant replied “No”.

“Was anything said between you?” the barrister asked.

McDonald replied: “No. I was in shock that she grabbed me, to be fair.”

McDonald said the woman started undressing and he helped undo a couple of her buttons and then took his T-shirt off as she removed her own clothes.

They then began having sex and he said she was “moaning and groaning like she was enjoying herself”.

Responding to questions from Mr Morgan, the footballer said the woman was awake throughout the sexual activity.

After about 10 minutes he noticed something at the window of the ground-floor room so got up to close the curtains.

The jury was earlier told that, as the incident took place, McDonald had noticed Evans had entered the room.

He said the woman also saw Evans. “I asked her ‘Can he join in?’ and she said ‘Yes’,” he said.

He said he then got off the bed and put his T-shirt back on as the woman asked Evans to perform a sex act.

The trial continues.