A man dressed as a squirrel was ‘pretty startled’ to see a pair of legs in the road, jurors heard. 

The costumed student was on his way home from a Cowley Road club in the early hours of November 11 last year when he turned into Bartlemas Road and saw the woman’s legs around 10m away, he told Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

The woman was lying parallel to the pavement, with a man – who prosecutors say was 30-year-old Frank Hollywell – crouching beside her.

READ MORE: Student 'distraught' after alleged attack

Giving evidence at Hollywell’s trial on Monday morning via video link, the student said: “I was pretty startled. I didn’t expect two people to be on the road like that.” 

He said: “As I walked closer I asked is everything alright?

“The female asked can you take me away from this guy?” 

The woman was ‘frightened and on the verge of [being] hysterical’, he added. She told him: “I’ve been raped.” 

Prosecutor Christopher Amis asked: “Can you remember whether or not she described to you what the person had done to her?” 

He replied: “No, she was in hysterics at this point. She was crying and she could hardly string a sentence together.”

The man, who said he did not know the woman but later realised she was a friend of a friend, walked her home and waited until her boyfriend arrived at the house.

The Good Samaritan clarified that he had been dressed as a squirrel when he helped the woman. Earlier in the trial the outfit was described as a ‘bear costume’. 

READ MORE: Student left 'distraught' by alleged sex assault

Hollywell, of Templar Road, Cutteslowe, denies sexually assaulting the woman by touching her as she sat on the road.

Yesterday afternoon, the 12-member jury was read the defendant’s interview with detectives at Abingdon police station on November 12 – a day after the alleged assault. 

He admitted speaking to the woman, who he said was ‘worried about her boyfriend’, and had ‘tried to comfort her with my voice’. 

But he denied any sexual contact between them.

Asked about his movements that evening, he said he had gone to Bartlemas Road to pick up a £60 debt from a friend. 

He was caught on CCTV carrying a white pole, which he said he had picked up from a bin on Cowley Road.

He said he had urinated in a bush, collected the money, picked up drugs to ‘score’ then walked to the Half Moon pub on The Plain roundabout. 

Hollywell denies wrongdoing. The trial continues. 

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward