A hotel worker raped five young women after giving them drinks which made them black out, a court has been told.

Tom Wade-Allison allegedly mixed gin and tonics or other drinks for some of the victims which left them reeling and feeling 'blank' or exhausted.

He is alleged to have carried out the rapes and sexual assaults in Somerset and Honiton between 2016 and 2017 when east Devon, and the complainants were aged between 17 and 20 at the time.

They all say they were assaulted after becoming partially incapacitated, apparently by alcohol, while with Wade-Allison.

Some say the incidents happened after parties at friends’ houses but one says she was raped after going back to his room in staff quarters at the hotel where he worked.

She told Exeter Crown Court she ended up naked in his bed where they had had sex.

She said: "Tom made me a G&T. I did not see him make it. I drank it.

"I just cannot really remember after that. In the morning I woke up naked next to him. I don't know what had happened before, it was pretty strange.

"We had intercourse again. I was not really conscious."

She told the jury Wade-Allison tried to have anal sex with her but she kicked him in the stomach and she said he had 'weird scratches on his belly'.

She said she fell asleep but he pulled off the covers and told her to leave.

She said: "I had no idea what was happening. I was freaking out.

"My body was willing and my body was having sex - but my head was not."

She said she had never blacked out through drinking before that night.

Wade-Allison, aged 25, of Martock, near Yeovil, denies ten counts of rape, two of attempted rape, and four of sexual assault. He says any sexual contact was consensual.

Mr Lee Bremridge, prosecuting, said the common feature of all the allegations was that Wade-Allison took advantage of the women when they were severely affected by drinks and possibly cannabis.

He said all the offences took place in an 18-month period in 2016 and 2017 when Wade-Allison was trusted by a group of friends who knew each other in Somerset.

Mr Bremridge said: “He was to betray that trust in the worst possible way by taking advantage of them sexually. A common feature is that when they were with him, the women became very drunk very quickly.

“Sometimes this was not because of the amount they had drunk and when they became very drunk it bore no connection with what they had drunk.

“One of the women said she had one drink and then totally blanked out and had no memory of being in a property with him. She said she went from being totally okay to not being there at all.

“Another said she was just too drunk and too stoned to stop him. One said he made her a gin and tonic and didn’t really remember anything after that.

“The prosecution’s position is that a common feature that runs through the accounts is that he penetrated or attempted to penetrate the complainants in circumstances where it was perfectly clear they did not agree to it or were in no fit state to agree, and in law that is rape.

“He either got them into a state in which he took advantage of them or took advantage of them because of the state they were in.

“He took advantage sexually when they did not or could not consent or had told him to stop or tried to get him to stop, but he carried on regardless.”

Mr Bremridge said the first complaint was made by a woman who he took back to his room at a hotel where he worked. She had blacked out after just one drink and woke to find him trying to have sex with her.

She sent him a text the next day which asked ‘why?’ and he replied by saying ‘all I can do is apologise over and over again. Obviously, there was some tiny part of my brain that thought it was okay’.

He said the other four complainants came forward over the next few months to make similar allegations to the police.

He gave a series of interviews to the police in which he denied raping any of the five women and insisted all sexual contact was consensual.

The trial continues.