AN?EXETER University student was allegedly groped by a night club customer from Bishopsteignton whom she invited back to her accommodation block.

The student agreed to let Robert Caple stay overnight in her room but fled in the middle of the night after he touched her while they were watching an episode of Breaking Bad on her laptop.

Caple, aged 28, had met the woman and another female student at the Club Rococo in Exeter and they had gone back with a group of friends to the university accommodation in the city.

She let him stay in her room after the others all went to bed but there had been no hint of a romantic relationship between them, Exeter Crown Court was told.

The student became alarmed about his behaviour when he lay behind her and started touching her body and told him to stop even before he allegedly climbed on top of her and put a hand inside her shorts.

She managed to get out from under him and ran out of the building, taking her entry card and mobile with her before climbing in a kitchen window and seeking help from friends.

Caple, aged 28, of Camerons Close, Bishopsteignton, denies sexual assault by penetration.

Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said Caple and a friend met two Exeter University students, including the complainant, at Club Rococo in April last year.

The woman’s friend got on well with Caple’s friend and they all ended up back at the student accommodation in the early hours where they sat in the kitchen eating pizza before everyone went to bed.

Mr Wraith said: ‘Caple went to sleep in the student’s room because there was nowhere else for him to sleep and it was standard procedure to have friends sleeping in rooms without indicating any sexual interaction.

‘They went to the room where she put Breaking Bad on her lap top and they sat on the bed watching it. He sat behind her with an arm over her and she remembers thinking that was a bit odd.

‘There had been no suggestion at all during the evening of there being any romance or intimacy between the two.

‘After five minutes or so things went a bit further and he started to feel her up. She had a physical reaction and recoiled into a foetal position.

‘It must have been obvious his attentions were not welcome and she told him:?“No, leave me alone”.’

Mr Wraith said he told her not to be so silly and they resumed watching the film for 10 minutes but just as she was hoping to go to sleep he swung himself on top of her and pinned her down.

He put his hand inside her shorts and she was frozen in panic but managed to escape from under him when he moved his other hand, possibly trying to take down his pants.

Mr Wraith said: ‘She was no longer pinned down and made a break for it out of the bed and away from him. She grabbed her phone and room key card and went downstairs.’

She went to a friend’s room and slept in another student’s bed. After discussing what happened with friends, she decided to go to the police the next day.

Caple made no comment in police interviews but now denies carrying out the assault and says any sexual activity was consensual.