Andrew Cole allegedly touched the woman’s “private parts” and asked her to touch him and then three days later he allegedly pushed her on to a bed and raped her, Ipswich Crown Court has heard.
Cole, 60, of Britannia Road, Ipswich, has denied sexually assaulting the woman on May 12 2022, and raping her on May 15 2022.
Summing up the case to the jury on Thursday, September 18, Recorder Jeremy Benson said the alleged victim told police she could be forgetful and that she had made a comment to Cole about “all the good ones being taken”.
She initially denied being attracted to Cole but then said: “Maybe I was”.
She accepted she had said: “There is chemistry there” to Cole and added that in hindsight she shouldn’t have said that.
She had also said: “He’s going to say I came on to him”.
The jury heard that the woman had been “distraught” when she phoned her son and told him about what Cole had allegedly done to her.
Giving evidence Cole, who was arrested in May 2022, said he had been a self employed gardener for five years after previously working for a garden centre in Woodbridge.
He said on May 12 2022 he went to the alleged victim’s home and had cut the grass and nothing sexual had happened.
On May 15 he went to her home to discuss work that she wanted him to do in the garden and she was wearing a nightgown and slippers.
He claimed he was about to leave when she lifted up her nightie and said to him: “Are we going to do anything?”.
He said they had hugged and she had led him into the bedroom where they had consensual sex.
Cole told the court that at no stage had she said or done anything to indicate she didn’t want to have sex with him.
He said he believed the woman wanted to have a relationship with him but he didn’t want one with her.
The jury retired to consider its verdicts on Thursday afternoon September 18 and is expected to continue its deliberations on Friday September 19.
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