AUBURN – A Sabattus man charged with raping a Bates College student in a campus bathroom this spring has been accused of another rape that occurred nearly a year earlier.

Christian Averill, 21, has been charged with pulling a woman off a downtown Lewiston street last year and raping her in the back of his pickup truck, police said.

Police questioned Averill about that attack last summer, but he insisted the woman wanted to have sex.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah Potter-Cashman said Thursday that prosecutors decided to charge Averill with the Lewiston attack after he was identified as the prime suspect in the April 5 rape at Bates College.

Averill appeared in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing on two charges of gross sexual assault.

During the hearing, Averill sat with his hands clasped and his head down. His grandparents, brother, girlfriend and two uncles sat a few rows behind him.

Nearby sat Karen Spearrin, 24, who accused Averill of raping her on the night of June 15, 2001. Spearrin told police that Averill grabbed her around the neck as she was walking to a friend’s house, dragged her across the street and raped her in his pickup truck.

Outside of court, Spearrin said she doesn’t know why it took so long to charge Averill.

“There were no witnesses, and he supposedly said it was consensual,” Spearrin said. “But it wasn’t. It was brutal. I couldn’t move for two weeks.”

Police released statements after the hearing saying they were led to Averill after DNA samples were taken from the Bates student.

In that case, the female student was leaving the bathroom in a residential hall when a young man whom she had never seen before approached her. She told police the man grabbed her arms, lodged some type of weapon against her neck and pushed her back into the bathroom, where he raped her.

Technicians at the Maine State Police Crime Lab were able to match DNA samples taken from the victim’s clothing with a DNA profile that had been in the crime lab’s database since 1999.

The profile belonged to Averill, whose DNA samples were taken three years ago when he was convicted as a juvenile in another sexual assault, police said.

Police said Averill has denied all charges against him and he did not enter a plea Thursday.

Judge John McElwee set bail at $50,000 cash or $250,000 in property.