Skegness rape trial jury retires to consider verdict

The attack is said to have happened in Skegness's Tower Gardens

A jury in the trial of a man accused of raping a woman in a Skegness park has retired to consider their verdict.

Saad Gomaa, 34, denies attacking the woman in the resort's Tower Gardens on 9 June this year.

It is alleged he raped the woman who was drunk and told him she did not want sex.

Mr Gomaa previously told the jury at Lincoln Crown Court that the sex was consensual after the woman "came onto him".

The court heard the defendant, an Egyptian national, had spent 40 days in the UK after arriving from France and was living in a hotel used by asylum seekers.

Giving jurors final directions before they retired on Friday, Judge James House KC said: "When you retire you must reach a unanimous verdict, that is to say, a verdict upon which you all agree."

Saad Gomaa, 34, is on trial at Lincoln Crown Court

"Some of you may know that the law allows me to accept a verdict which is not the verdict of you all, but that state of the trial has not yet been reached and it may never be reached," the judge said

"At this stage please, you must concentrate on reaching a unanimous verdict.

"There is no pressure of time, ladies and gentlemen."

The trial continues.