Constable Jordan McLean, 26, had just played for the British Police rugby team against Army Rugby Union and he and his teammates headed out for the evening.
Croydon Crown Court heard he met the University of Surrey student in Guildford’s Casino nightclub and the pair took a taxi back to his Holiday Inn room.
“I have been playing it over in my head constantly,” he told the trial. “This has been my life for the last two-and-a-half years and I have not been able to work. I did not do this.
“I did not hold her down, I didn’t use force. I have never been aggressive to anyone, aggressive to a woman in my life.”
McLean, of Silvertonhill Avenue, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and one count of assault by penetration in the early hours of January 26, 2023.
McLean had flown down to play the fixture in Aldershot - a heavy defeat - and insists the sexual activity with the student was consensual on both sides.
“I was born and raised in Hamilton and I always planned to joined the police. My family were in the police and when I was young I was bullied a lot and wanted to protect and serve.
McLean joined Police Scotland and progressed to the British Police team, which is comprised of the best players from all the forces in the country.
“I’ve played rugby all of my life and this was my second game for the British team.
“At the hotel we dropped our bags and headed out. I had one drink and found out the rest of the boys were at the Casino nightclub,” he told the trial.
“I had seven or eight beers by the end of the night. I’m quite a large fellah and can drink quite a bit as long as it is beer.
“She caught my eye and started speaking to me. She was totally fine and we had a drink together at the bar.
“We hit it off because we are both sporty. She played netball and I played rugby.
“I am not the best dancer so was just moving and we were touching each other and I asked her if she wanted to come back to the Holiday Inn.”
McLean confessed he was in an “on and off” two-year relationship at the time. “There was infidelity on my part. It was not something I was proud of doing, but we were not fully committed.
“When I came back from the toilet she said: ‘Yeah. Let’s go.’ We were kissing in the back of the taxi. Sex, that was the idea of going back to the hotel.”
The young woman earlier told the court six feet three inches-tall McLean held her down on the bed in the hotel room and raped her and then a second time when she returned from the bathroom.
“She was touching me and all over me,” he said from the witness box. “We had a wee kiss in the hotel corridor, you can see it on the CCTV.
“We were chatting and flirting and tried each other’s vapes, the different flavours.
“We were kissing on the bed, side by side and I began taking my shirt off and she helped me.
“She took her trousers off. The top came off, she took her top off.”
McLean told the jury consensual activity followed, including him putting his hand between the student’s legs.
However, the young woman gave a different account. “He was moving his hands down my body and he started to take my trousers down and my shoes, he took them off. I felt frozen.
“He pulled his trousers off and his shirt and he forced himself forward on me.
“All the time I was saying: ‘No’. He could tell I was upset, but he carried on.”
She said she dressed herself, but was raped again.
“He pulled my trousers back down and I just thought: ‘Lay there.’ I just did not feel in the mood, it was with someone I didn’t know.”
Defence lawyer Guy Ladenburg asked her: “What did you think you were going to do in the hotel room? Play a game? Watch a film”
He suggested: “You may have regretted your decision to have a one-night stand, but you went along willingly and freely with what went on in the bedroom.”
McLean, who insists the episode was a consensual one-night stand, says they parted on good terms. “We were talking before she left. I had no idea she didn’t want to be there.”
He was arrested at his home in Scotland two days later.
“I was totally shellshocked when they came to the door. The first thing I heard at two in the morning was banging at the door and five officers there.
“I have never been arrested, never even had a speeding ticket in my life. I was in total shock and was in a cell for ten hours.”
When cross-examined McLean said: “I told her my name. I have no reason to do this, no reason to hurt her.
“I was in a relationship at the time so did not think it was best to exchange numbers.”
Prosecutor Ed Hand suggested: “The prosecution say you have concocted a false consensual account to cover up your forced sexual episode. You just helped yourself.”
Trial continues………….
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