Cricketer Alex Hepburn: Rape trial jury discharged Published duration 11 January 2019

image copyright Ben Birchall/PA Wire image caption The jury in the trial of Alex Hepburn has been discharged.

Jurors have failed to reach verdicts in the trial of a cricketer accused of raping a sleeping woman.

Former Worcestershire CCC all-rounder Alex Hepburn, 23, had denied two charges said to have been committed in April 2017.

Jurors at Worcester Crown Court deliberated for more than nine hours before telling the judge they were unlikely to agree on verdicts.

Mr Hepburn will learn if he faces a retrial within two weeks.

Before the jury was discharged, trial judge Jim Tindal gave a majority direction, meaning he would accept verdicts on which at least ten members agreed.

But the group of eight women and four men eventually passed a note to Mr Tindal informing him of the deadlock.

A retrial was provisionally listed for April 8 and Australian-born Mr Hepburn, of Portland Street, was released on bail.

Prosecutors have accused him of assaulting the woman after she had consensual sex with his former team-mate Joe Clarke.

Mr Hepburn said his encounter with the complainant had also been consensual.

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