UPDATE: Richards cleared of rape by jurors.

A WOMAN was left feeling ‘bewildered’ after she woke to find her deaf friend raping her, a court has been told.

Callum Richards, 29, denies raping the woman in a mutual friend’s home on August 17, 2014.

In her opening to jurors, prosecutor Abigail Husbands said the woman had been at a family celebration before heading to a Woodstock pub the previous night, drinking heavily throughout.

She made prior arrangements to stay over at the friend’s house, sleeping in his bed while he slept downstairs with Richards, of Green Lane, Woodstock, the prosecutor said.

Ms Husbands told Oxford Crown Court the woman was awoken by Richards the next morning but was not concerned when her friend got into the bed next to her.

The woman, now in her 30s, fell back to sleep but woke again to find the defendant raping her, the prosecutor alleged on Monday.

She turned towards Richards so he could read her lips, telling him to stop and leave the room, Ms Husbands told the jury of ten men and four women.

The prosecutor said the woman then tapped Richards on the shoulder and ‘forcefully’ told him to get out before he left.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, later confronted Richards in a Facebook message, telling him he ‘should not do things like that’ and he was ‘going to get into trouble’, Ms Husbands said.

Richards, who was assisted by British Sign Language interpreters and an intermediary, apologised and told the woman he was ‘losing control’, Ms Husbands added.

Defence barrister Siobhan Grey QC yesterday quizzed the woman about why she reported the alleged rape almost two months after she claimed it took place.

She replied: “I was in shock, I did not want to believe it. He had been a friend, I did not want to believe that had happened to me.”