Cape Town - A final-year BSc student at Stellenbosch University was released on R1 000 bail on Tuesday, when he appeared in the Stellenbosch District Court on a charge of rape.
An earlier charge of rape – not connected to the current one – had been provisionally withdrawn, but may yet be re-instituted, the court heard.
The student may not be named until his trial starts, and he pleads one way or the other to the current charge.
It is alleged that campus security, alerted to the presence of a woman student in his bed at a university residence, found the pair in bed together.
It is alleged that the victim was heavily inebriated, and unaware of what was happening to her.
The accused student appeared before magistrate Greg Jacobs, who warned him to appear in court again on November 11.
Defence attorney Neil Slabber handed to the court a medical report that stated that no penetration had taken place. The report said the alleged victim had been regularly sexually active.
Prosecutor Richardo Davis alleges that the victim did not consent to having sex with the accused student.
The magistrate released the accused student on bail on the basis that, in law, he was presumed to be innocent, until proven guilty, that he had no previous convictions, no outstanding warrants for his arrest and no pending criminal cases against him.
The earlier rape charge that had been provisionally withdrawn, could not be regarded as a pending case, the magistrate said.
African News Agency