Maths teacher and keen weightlifter Jack Crosse, 31, is on trial at Cardiff Crown Court accused of raping two women at a Christmas party held at a gym in Pontypool, Wales

A teacher raped a woman at a Christmas party while grabbing her face and telling her he wasn’t “forcing” her to have sex, a court heard today.

Maths teacher Jack Crosse, 31, is accused of raping two women on the same night at a festive party held at a gym in Pontypool.

One of his alleged victims told a jury how she was “frozen with fear” when “big and strong” Crosse tried to pull down her trousers.

She told how the high school head of year had been “groping” her on the dancefloor before attacking her in another room at the gym.

In her police interview she said “persistent” Crosse repeatedly grabbed her bottom while she was dancing despite her trying to avoid him.

She said: “He would come up and try and dance with me and I would move away and he would dance with other girls but he kept coming back.

“He was really persistent and touching my bum. When he would come up he was touching me everywhere and I would move away quite a lot.

“He was so strong and big and and I’m quite a small person and I thought I can’t say anything because no one else has said anything.”

The woman said later that night she found herself in another part of the gym alone with Crosse when he allegedly forced himself upon her.

She said: “He was gripping me and holding my cheeks he was saying to me ‘I’m not forcing you to do anything’ but grabbing my face and kissing me.

“His grip was quite firm, I couldn’t get out of it when he was kissing me.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard Crosse then began to remove the woman’s trousers as the alleged attack continued.

She said: “I said ‘I don’t want to do anything’ two or three times and he said ‘I’m not forcing you but you’re a really good kisser’ and he was forcing me around.

“I was frozen with fear. I was just stood there.

“He didn’t take my knickers off, he just moved them to the side and started having sex with me. I turned around to him and said ‘I don’t want to do this’.”

The jury was told Crosse had been “a bit of a nuisance” while making sexual comments towards party-goers after downing drinks in the free bar.

Prosecutor Susan Ferrier said another alleged victim gave Crosse consensual oral sex in the back room at the gym in Pontypool, Gwent.

But he then allegedly forced himself upon her and raped after she told him “no”.

The woman said: “I was saying no, no, no and putting my hands back to stop it. No means no.”

She said that after the alleged attack she felt “embarrassed” she had been a victim but felt she had to come forward because of Crosse’s “position of power” as a teacher.

She said she feared it would make big problems for Crosse, who works as a head of year, if she came forward. She said she decided to do so because it was “the right thing to do”.

The woman told police during interview that Crosses pulled down her trousers and said “no” as she felt his penis.

She claims the teacher penetrated her four times, and that she said, “Stop”, and put her hands on his chest.

Crosse was pushed away and was “looking very drunk”, she adds.

The court heard the woman attempted to get away from Crosse by saying she had to go but would soon return.

She said: “He slapped me across the face and said, ‘Hurry up’. I was thinking, ‘What the hell?’

“It was stinging. It was quite painful. I remember holding my face.

“My ears were quite sore. I was in shock. I didn’t expect that.”

Crosse was arrested and told police he did not know the women but claimed the sex acts were consensual.

Miss Ferrier said: “The defendant rode roughshod over both of these women.

“He couldn’t care less whether they were consenting or not because he was determined to have things his way and they were acts of rape.”

Keen weightlifter Crosse, of Caerphilly, South Wales, denies three counts of rape.

The trial, expected to last six days before Recorder IWL Jones, continues.