A FRIEND of the schoolgirl allegedly raped by two teenage boys in Appleby told police he saw them “forcing her” to do things.

At Carlisle Crown Court, the jury in the case was shown video-taped interviews with the schoolgirl involved and with one of her friends who was with her before and after the alleged rapes.

The defendants - 14 and 15 at the time - have both pleaded not guilty to rape.

Earlier in the case, prosecutor Tim Evans had outlined the prosecution case, describing how the two boys, who are now 16 and 17, were in the town with their families for Appleby Horse Fair.

The girl told police that they had taken her to an alley near the town centre and then "forced” her into performing sex acts on each of them in turn.

She spoke of being “scared throughout” the whole encounter.

On day two of the trial, the jury were shown both her police interview and the one given by her friend, a teenage boy she had been out with on the day of the alleged rapes, May 30, 2019.

“I was just scared,” the girl told a police officer. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.” She said that one of the defendants - who had repeatedly asked her to go for a walk - had grabbed her by the wrist and then walked her across a nearby bridge.

She said she had not wanted to go with him. After being ‘forced’ into sex acts, she was “scared and shaking”, she recalled.

In his police interview, her friend told officers that he heard the girl telling the boys she did not want to go for a walk with the defendants.

“The lad just grabbed her wrist and was pulling her away,” the boy told the officer, saying that the girl looked scared.

Asked how the defendant had grabbed her, the boy replied: “Aggressively.”

The boy was asked about what he saw after the girl was walked away by the defendants. Describing this, he said: “She looked stressed. They were forcing [her] into doing stuff.”

Mr Evans said the defendants would claim the girl cooperated “enthusiastically” in the sexual activity. Those two accounts, said the prosecutor, were diametrically opposed.

The jury would have to decide how likely it was that the girl had agreed to have sex with two “perfect strangers”, he said. Neither boy can named for legal reasons.

The trial continues.