The jury have been discharged in the case of a supermarket worker who was accused of sexually assaulting an Exeter University student after a night out.
Robert Caple denied putting his hand inside the woman’s pants after she allowed him to stay overnight at her room in student accommodation in Exeter in April 2015.
They had met in Club Rococo and returned to the hall of residence together because a friend who was with the student had paired up with a man who had shared a taxi to Exeter with Caple.
The student told Exeter Crown Court she had done nothing to encourage him to touch her and told him to stop when he first tried.
She said she fled her room in the middle of the night after he assaulted her while they were watching an episode of Breaking Bad on her laptop.
Caple, aged 28, of Camerons Close, Bishopsteignton, who is a night supervisor at Asda in Newton Abbot, denied sexual assault by penetration and the jury were discharged after failing to agree on a verdict.
He said the student had taken off her top and had been kissing him before she took offence at a misguided comment in which he told her ’you look beautiful in the dark’.
He denied putting his hand inside her shorts or trying to touch her private parts.
Recorder Mr Adam Feest, QC, adjourned the case to allow the prosecution to decide if they want to apply for a retrial. He released Caple on bail.