A farm worker has appeared at Truro Crown Court this afternoon accused of raping a university student who was on a night out with friends in Falmouth just before Christmas.

Davlatsho Davlatshoev, originally from Tajikistan but working at Lower Trevaskis Farm at Conor Downs near Hayle, has pleaded not guilty to raping the student in Church Street car park after allegedly pulling her there while she was badly inebriated.

The court was told that in the early hours of December 5, 2021 Davlatshoev, who was 23 at the time, pulled his victim into the car park after talking to her in the foyer of St George's Arcade on Church Street where she was having a cigarette.

The prosecution alleges that Davalatshoev took his victim across the road, down the tunnel to the car park, where he pushed her onto the ground by the bins where people usually went to urinate, and raped her. He then walked away and gathered his friends from the group he had come with, before leaving.

In a video interview played to the court the complainant said she had gone for a drink with a male friend at a bar who had then persuaded her to go out clubbing. They had gone to various other clubs in the town before ending up at Club International.

By this time the student said she was very drunk and thought her drinks may have been spiked as, although she had drunk a lot, she could usually "drink other people under the table" and had often drunk more than she had on that night, and had been fine.

She said she had met other people in the club but had kept losing and finding her friends as they went to the bar and the loo. As she was the only one who smoked she would go down the stairs to the foyer to have a smoke.

She said at about 1am in the morning her friend said he was going to the cash point with another friend and would be back in a bit, but when he was longer than expected she decided to go down to the foyer for another cigarette.

While she was there, CCTV footage showed the alleged victim talking to a friend of Davlatshoev. In the video, played to the court, Davlatshoev works his way round to the woman's other side. The pair start kissing and he is then seen taking her by the arm through a crowd of other people across the road to the tunnel. After that the CCTV loses them as there is no CCTV in the car park.

He is then seen emerging from the tunnel, followed a bit later by the alleged victim who is seen phoning a friend - she said to tell her friend what had happened.

In her video interview taken shortly after the alleged attack, the woman said initially she had tried to convey to the man she alleged raped her that she wasn't interested in talking to him but it didn't work.

"I was just sitting down having a smoke, avoiding eye contact with anyone, when this male approached me and started talking to me, but I wasn't interested," she said. She said she moved away but the male approached her again, despite her telling him she wasn't interested. She said she didn't remember how they got to the car park.

"I didn't know what was happening," she said. "I had my eyes closed the whole time, I just froze. That's why I couldn't describe the person who did it. I remember it happening but don't remember much it was so quick.

"My eyes were closed and my trousers were taken down when we got round the corner and I somehow ended up on the floor. I don't know how that happened."

She said the rape took place by the fenced off area where the bins are placed, in front a locked gate where people from Club I would go urinate or vomit if they couldn't be bothered to go back into the club, and she could smell it. She said her alleged attacker "hovered" over her while he raped her.

The trial continues.