[A] MAN facing a string of rape allegations has been told he is due to stand trial before a jury later this year.
Ian Beal, 55, appeared at Carlisle Crown Court earlier today (WED), when he pleaded not guilty to a total of 18 charges.
Eleven of these allege rape, with two different women named in these charges. Beal also denied five counts of allegedly causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and two charges alleging assault by penetration.
Court papers show the charges span four decades and date back as far as the late 1980s.
Beal, bespectacled and wearing a dark suit, listened from the dock as prosecutor Tim Evans estimated that a trial would last “four to five days”.
That hearing is due to start at the crown court on October 1.
In the meantime Beal, of Spencer Street, Carlisle, was granted conditional bail by Judge James Adkin.
