A bouncer accused of raping a woman near London’s Heaven nightclub denied the ‘predatory’ sex attack today.
Morenikeji Adewole, 47, is said to have assaulted the woman near the iconic gay venue in Charing Cross on November 1.
Heaven was forced to close following the alleged incident.
It is claimed other staff members had ignored the complainant’s attempts to report the attack.
Adewole, also known as Olu Julius or Olusolu Alabi, appeared at Southwark Crown Court wearing a dark blue fleece and denied one charge of rape.
Judge Justin Cole said: ‘This is said to have been a predatory rape.’
Adewole, of Dartford, was remanded in custody ahead of his trial on May 19 next year.
Judge Cole added: ‘I don’t need to say much about the state of the national backlog other than to say it is at record levels.
‘To achieve a date within a few days of the custody time limit feels like an achievement in the current circumstances.’
The famous Charing Cross venue has operated for more than 40 years.
But it was briefly forced to close following the alleged incident on public safety grounds, with Westminster Council’s licensing committee ruling that Heaven’s alcohol licence should be suspended for up to 28 days.
A spokesman for the Met Police told the committee the nightclub is ‘the highest crime generator in the borough’.
But the council agreed last week to reinstate the venue’s licence subject to stricter conditions, including ‘no entry’ after 3am.
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