Two men raped a woman in an alleyway when she was drunk while a third kept a lookout, a court has heard, Metro UK reports.
Brian Jalo, 25, and Juan Quinones, 24, claimed that they were having consensual sex and deny rape along with alleged look-out Justice Tandoh, 21.
The victim says she was attacked during a weekend shopping trip to Manchester in May 2021.
The young woman had come to Manchester with a female friend, and were approached by Jalo and Quinones while sitting on a bench outside their city centre hotel.
After striking up a conversation with the pair, she accepted a friend request from Jalo on Instagram so the pair were able to message each other.
The next day the woman and her friend went shopping, had lunch then went out drinking the equivalent of 10 double vodkas and lemonade.
When they got back to the hotel at 7pm they appeared to be very drunk and had fallen out, according to the receptionist.
Nearly an hour later, the friend told the receptionist the victim had gone to Piccadilly Gardens after getting a message from Jalo.
Prosecutor Robert Wynn-Jones said: ‘She was intoxicated and the prosecution say there is a clear inference that they had formed the intention to get her alone in that state and commit the acts of rape and sexual assault upon her.’
He said she was lured down an alleyway and appeared unsteady on her feet on CCTV near a fire exit door.
The footage shows Jalo trying to put his hands down the woman’s trousers before pulling them down.
The victim claimed Jalo then tried to kiss her, and that he pushed her down to her knees when she tried to back away.
Jalo and Quinones then allegedly carried out sex acts on the woman.
She told police that she was crying and told the men ‘no’ during the six-minute ordeal.
Tandoh could be seen on camera keeping watch by the alleyway entrance, and later stayed with the woman who was ‘visibly distressed’ following the attack.
Afterwards, Mr Wynn-Jones said that the three defendants greeted each other with fist-bumps as they left the scene.
The woman was then cross-examined by Pat Buckley, on behalf of Jalo.
