Jurors trying millionaire businessman Lawrence Jones - who denies two charges of rape - were asked to consider whether it was likely his two accusers would 'hit upon the same lie'.
The 55-year-old, of Brooks Drive in Hale Barns, denies two counts of rape. The prosecution allege he 'stupefied' two young women with unknown drugs and then raped them on separate occasions in a flat in Salford in the early 1990s. Mr Jones says he never met one of his accusers and says sex he had with a second women was consensual.
One woman, described as Woman A in press reports of the trial, alleges she was raped at a flat in Salford in 1993 after drinking a glass of red wine and taking a couple of 'tokes' of a spliff rolled by the defendant The second woman, Woman B, says she was urged to take a sniff from a medicine bottle containing a clear liquid. She says she instantly felt 'really really drunk' and was raped.
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On the eighth day of the trial at Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC began her closing address to the jury.
She said: "Make no mistake, there's no great mystery as to how you decide whether or not you are sure (of guilt). You use your collective experience of the world. You use it to reach common sense conclusions."
The lawyer said that if a woman is drugged they are 'not in a fit state to consent' and 'that ladies and gentlemen is rape'.
Miss Marshall told jurors that if they decide the women are telling the truth then 'Mr Jones is lying'. She questioned what woman would come up with a 'circus of lies' 30 years after an attack.
The KC asked how likely it was that both Jones' accusers would 'hit upon the same lie', pointing out both had described an 'identical flat' where they say they were raped.
The defence closing speech is due to start in the morning.
Proceeding.
