Top Boy actor Micheal Ward denies raping woman in car
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- Micheal Ward, 28, appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday accused of raping and sexually assaulting a woman he met at a nightclub in north-east London in 2023.
- The alleged attack took place in a car near an afterparty, where the woman said in her police interview that she felt "numb" and "scared" and tried to leave but was told to close the door.
- Ward denies two charges of rape and three counts of sexual assault, telling police: "we had consensual foreplay and consensual sex."
- The Jamaican-born, London-raised actor won Bafta's Rising Star award in 2020 and is known for playing gang leader Jamie on the Netflix crime series Top Boy and Marco in the film Blue Story.
- The trial continues.
Why it matters: The case weighs the alleged victim's account of feeling "scared" and "numb" in a vehicle against Ward's police statement claiming "consensual foreplay and consensual sex." Ward, who won Bafta's 2020 Rising Star award for Netflix's Top Boy and the film Blue Story, faces two rape counts and three sexual assault counts.
