TWO women have said they were sexually assaulted by the same man after meeting him through a dating website, Burnley Crown Court heard.

One woman from Colne told police she was thrown onto a bed by Scott Lazenby and molested before being raped twice, after the pair met through the Plenty of Fish site, the court was told.

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Another of Lazenby’s alleged victims, who also had a dating account with the same operator, has accused him of groping her as she tried to feed her infant son, in a separate incident.

And when police arrested Lazenby over the Colne allegations, they discovered internet searches with references to sexual assault and sex cases, the court heard.

Prosecutor Emma Kehoe said: “It is not a coincidence that two woman, in separate towns, who had never spoken to one another, never mind met each other, could independently, and within days of each other, say that they have been sexually assaulted at the hands of Scott Lazenby.”

Jurors have been told that the first allegation came to light when a young woman alerted police to inform them she had allegedly been assaulted by Lazenby in her own in Ashton-under-Lyne.

The pair had met each other through Plenty of Fish when they agreed to meet up on November 3 last year. They had been chatting when she went to get a yoghurt, for her young son to eat.

Miss Kehoe said while the woman was sat on a sofa, Lazenby moved beside her and began stroking her arm, which made her feel uncomfortable.

The court heard he then put his hand underneath her top and fondled her breast. She got up with her son and shouted at him to leave.

He was sat on the sofa, having exposed himself, but he got up and left shortly afterwards, the court heard.

Four days later a young woman from Colne, who had been exchanging online and WhatsApp messages with Lazenby through the same dating portal, agreed to meet up with him.

The pair started kissing when Lazenby, without warning, put his hand underneath her top, an action she protested about.

Miss Kehoe said he pushed the woman down onto the sofa and began kissing her until she got up and made an excuse about having to go to the toilet. But when she came out of the bathroom she says she was confronted by Lazenby in her bedroom.

He is alleged to have thrown her down on the bed, removed her leggings and underwear, before sexually assaulting her and raping her twice.

Lazenby accepted he had met both women through the dating website.

He insisted that any sex between himself and the two women had been consensual though.

Lazenby of Swift Close, Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, denies two offences of rape and one charge each of sexual assault and assault.

The trial continues.