Woman allegedly raped by Jack Diamond went to his home for ‘cuddles and company’, court told

• Jack Diamond arrives at Newcastle Crown Court for the opening of his trial this week

A woman who was allegedly raped and sexually assaulted by Sunderland footballer Jack Diamond told a court she went to his house that night for “cuddles and company”.

Diamond, 23, is accused of assaulting the woman he originally met on dating app Tinder after inviting her to his home in Fatfield, in Washington, Sunderland, in May 2022.

He denies the charges and is standing trial at Newcastle Crown Court, where jurors heard the pair had been “friends with benefits”, and the woman told police that her relationship with the Sunderland winger was “95% about sex”.

But she said she had not had sex with Diamond since she had started taking medication, which she had been told could lead to foetal abnormalities. The court heard she was not on the contraceptive pill at the time.

Eleanor Laws KC, defending, said the woman had had sex with Diamond since being prescribed the medication in February 2022, but she said she had not actually started taking it until March.

“I didn’t have any sex with Jack when I was on the medication – I’m sure of it,” the complainant told the court.

She denied Ms Laws’ claim that she had been “exaggerating” the medication and lack of contraception as reasons for not wanting to have sex with Diamond on the night of the incident.

Prosecutors say Diamond raped and sexually assaulted the woman after agreeing that “nothing more than cuddling would take place” when she went to his home on the night of the alleged assaults.

Jurors heard the woman “eventually” consented to some sexual activity before Diamond went to sleep, then woke up and started “caressing her body”.

Prosecutor David Povall said Diamond then sexually assaulted and raped the woman, and that she “protested” during both.

On Wednesday 3 January, the complainant told the court Diamond had asked her to come to his home that night, but the pair had agreed on the phone beforehand it would just be “cuddles and company”.

When Ms Laws asked: “That was not something that often happened between you was it?” the woman replied: “Sometimes it did.”

The complainant also denied “starting to feel a little bit more for (Diamond) than she expected to", adding: “I didn’t like Jack in that way, it was always friendship.”

She disagreed when Ms Laws said: “You were interested in him romantically, you wanted to be his girlfriend.”

Ms Laws said on the night of the alleged assaults, it was Diamond who turned down the woman when she started to initiate further sexual activity.

“What upset you that night was his disinterest in you, wasn’t it?” Ms Laws asked. The woman replied: “No.”

Diamond denies both charges and the trial continues.

The player was on loan with Lincoln City last season but the deal was terminated after he was charged, and Sunderland suspended him.