Two men and a 17-year-old boy have appeared in court accused of raping a woman in an Ipswich alleyway.

The trio appeared before magistrates in the town on Tuesday – each accused of the rape and sexual assault of a woman in her 20s last August.

Before the court were Vasile Ciuca, 20, of Waveney Road, Ipswich, Gheorghe Mihai, 21, of Osprey Court, Ipswich, and a 17-year-old boy, who can not be identified because of his age.

No pleas were entered by any of the defendants to the charges due to the more serious charge of rape being ‘indictable only’ and, therefore, triable only before a judge and jury under the higher jurisdiction of the crown court.

Lesla Small, prosecuting, summarised the case – alleging the incident took place at about 7.45pm on August 25.

She said the Crown would argue that the three accused had acted in joint enterprise – or that all were equally criminally liable for non-consensual oral sex and sexual touching.

The court heard how the three defendants had been released on conditional bail following their arrest on August 27.

They answered bail at noon on Monday, when they were charged and held in remand until Tuesday’s hearing.

All three appeared alongside each other in the dock and listened through a Romanian interpreter.

They spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth and addresses before the prosecution laid out the case against them.

Thirteen people sat at the back of the court as Ms Small explained the offence was alleged to have happened in an alleyway off Norwich Road.

A relative of one of the defendants was carried from the court when overcome with emotion as the hearing opened.

After a brief interruption, Ms Small continued by asking magistrates to send the youth with the adult defendants to the crown court for a plea hearing.

“It is the Crown’s application that the matter be kept together in the interests of justice and that they remain in custody,” she said.

Dino Barricella, representing the youth, and David Allan, for the adults, argued for their clients to be released with stringent bail conditions.

All three were granted conditional bail until a hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on March 26.