A MAN who claims he was sexually assaulted by a Johnstone pub boss told his mum he thought he’d been drugged and raped, a court has heard.
The alleged victim, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is said to have been interfered with by Robert Stewart on a couch at a flat the accused shared with his boyfriend, Robert Taylor.
It is claimed Mr Taylor was asleep on the same sofa at the time.
The man claimed that, after a drinking session, he was slipping in and out of consciousness and woke up to find Stewart had pulled his trousers and boxer shorts down and was performing a sex act on him.
Giving evidence at Paisley Sheriff Court, the man’s mother said he woke her up in the early hours of the morning to say he had been raped and thought he had been drugged.
She said she had to console him for an hour, holding him in her arms.
The woman, 60, was giving evidence on the second day of Stewart’s trial.
Stewart, 46, is said to have pounced on the 25-year-old man at a flat in Collier Street, Johnstone.
Prosecutors claim that, on October 30, 2017, he touched the man’s genitals under his clothing, took his pants off and performed sex acts without consent.
The man’s mother told the court her son was in tears as he told her what had happened on the night in question.
She said: “He said he had been in a flat and someone I knew had raped him.
“He said it was ‘Robert, from Callum’s pub’ – where we drank and ate.”
The court heard that, at the time, Stewart was manager of the pub and Mr Taylor worked there as a chef.
Under cross examination from defence solicitor Gordon Ritchie, the alleged victim refuted having wilfully engaged in sexual activity with Stewart on the night in question and making up a story to get himself “out of a big hole.”
Stewart, who has lodged a special defence of consent, claiming the man was a willing participant in the sexual contact between them on the night in question, denies breaking the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act.
The trial, before Sheriff Seith Ireland, continues
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