Micheal Ward: The top male actor raped a woman in a car, the court said

In the year A court heard how award-winning actor Mitchell Ward groped and sexually assaulted a woman after meeting her in a bar in London in 2023.

The 28-year-old actor – best known for his roles in Blue Story and the Netflix series Top Boy – is accused of carrying out the alleged attack in a car.

In a police interview on the first day of the trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday, the woman said she felt “numb” and “terrified” during the alleged attacks and recalled “wanting it all to be over”.

He denied two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault, and said all sex between the couple was consensual.

The alleged victim said she first met the actor at a party in a nightclub in northeast London. Jurors were told Ward knew she had been on film and television and was excited when he asked her for her Snapchat handle.

She was asked to accompany him to the back of his friend’s Mercedes and they kissed and the woman agreed to touch her closely, the trial heard.

The court heard the actor invited the victim and her friends to an after party elsewhere. The actor allegedly molested and sexually assaulted the woman in a car near that second party.

In a police interview, the victim said, “I tried to leave the vehicle and he told me to close the door.”

After his arrest, Ward – who appeared in court on Monday in a blue shirt and burgundy tie – told police: “I deny the rape charge. I want to put it on record that we had consensual foreplay and consensual sex.”

The Jamaican-born and London-raised actor won the 2020 Bafta Rising Star Award and made his name after playing gang leader and drug dealer Jamie in crime series Top Boy and Marco in Blue Story, a tale of rivalry on the streets of South London.

The trial continues.