Business boss drugged and raped women, jury is told

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE TECH FIRM CHIEF DENIES ALLEGATIONS

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

THE multi-millionaire founder of tech firm UKFast 'stupefied' two young women with drugs and then raped them at his flat in Salford in 1993, jurors were told.

Lawrence Jones, when he was in his mid-20s, allegedly called one a 'p**** tease' before pouncing on her after he had given her a glass of red wine and they had shared a cannabis joint, a court heard.

"So do I have to teach you a lesson (or) are you just gonna let me f*** you," Mr Jones is alleged to have told the woman, who later told police she had thought him an 'arrogant Tory.'

Mr Jones is alleged to have told a second alleged rape victim in another incident at his flat 'you're gorgeous' before telling her to sniff from a medicine bottle containing a clear liquid. She said the next thing she remembers, the defendant was on top of her.

Mr Jones, a multi-millionaire businessman of Brooks Drive in Hale Barns, now 55, denies two counts of rape.

The case concerned two allegations of rape against the defendant dating back to the early 1990s when Mr Jones was in his 20s and working in Manchester bars and hotels as a pianist, prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC told Manchester Crown Court yesterday.

The jury were told that in 2020 and 2021 two women came forward to make separate allegations of rape. Ms Marshall said it was the Crown's case that the defendant 'used drugs to facilitate' the alleged rapes.