A MAN targeted and raped three young women while they were unconscious after they'd been drinking, a jury was told.

Matthew Holder, 30, from Newport is on trial accused of four counts of rape and one of assault by penetration, all allegedly committed in the city.

Ieuan Bennett, prosecuting, claims the defendant sexually assaulted the three complainants in their own homes after they had passed or "blacked out".

It is alleged Holder, of Monnow Way, Bettws raped the women on separate occasions between 2018 and 2022.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges but has admitted theft after stealing a television from one of the complainants.

Mr Bennett told a Cardiff Crown Court jury: “The prosecution case is that there was a pattern of similarity between the complaints being made.

“So very simply put these were not happy coincidences over time.

“The defendant had targeted these young women.

“He knew exactly what he was doing and took sexual advantage of them.”

The court was told the first complainant said she had collapsed in her bedroom in her clothes after drinking spirits.

“She literally fell on top of the bed,” Mr Bennett said. “When she woke up, she was just wearing her bra.

“The prosecution case is that the defendant must have spent a bit of time stripping her down in order to deliberately sexually assault and rape her.”

Holder is alleged to have raped the second complainant when she was in “a terrible state” after meeting her on a night out in Newport city centre.

“She had blacked out as she put it, falling completely fast asleep,” the prosecutor said.

“The next thing she remembered, or as she put it coming around to give you an idea of what sort of condition she was in, was that the defendant, Matthew Holder, was on top of her, moving back and forth.

“He was in fact raping her.”

The defendant claims that sex between him and the woman was consensual.

The third complainant was raped after meeting Holder in a shop, Mr Bennett told the court.

“The very next thing she remembers is waking up in bed with no clothes on,” he said.

“She thought she only had her bra on when she woke up and she realised that somebody had taken the television set from a living room.”

When he was questioned by the police, Holder told them he and the woman had consensual sex and admitted stealing her TV.

“He accepted he was stupid to take the television,” Mr Bennett added.

The defendant said he sold the TV for £50.

The trial continues.