A BUSINESSMAN who, alongside former newspaper boss Eddy Shah, denies raping a young girl threatened to 'sue the s*** out of her,' a court has heard.

Anthony Pallant, 53, is accused of attacking the under-age girl in the early 1990s in hotels.

Pallant, of West Malling, Kent, denies six counts of rape and indecent assault.

He is accused of abusing the child who the crown say was brought to him by his former lover Susan Davies, 53, of Swanley, Kent, whom he was sleeping with at the time.

Davies also provided the girl for Shah, who founded the now-defunct Today newspaper in 1986 and has just sold the Wiltshire Golf and Country Club, to have sex with, the prosecution alleges.

Davies denies 14 counts of aiding and abetting rape, indecent assault and child cruelty, and Shah, 69, of Chippenham, denies six counts of raping a girl under 16.

Today, Pallant told the Old Bailey of his shock when he first heard of the allegations.

He was arrested on September 20, 2011, over the claims, but approximately 18 months before Davies had phoned him to say the girl - now in her early 30s - was claiming they had abused her.

He said Davies told him the woman had 'divorced a rich bloke and got £1m out of him and she had gone all weird and she had made allegations we had sex with her'.

He told the court: "I said, 'Really?'

"I said, 'Go to the police and when that gets sorted out I will sue the s*** out of her.'

"That was the first and last I heard of it until I got arrested."

Pallant, a father-of-three, denied ever having any sexual contact with the complainant.

Asked by his barrister, Sarah Forshaw QC, if he ever had any sexual interest in children, he said: "No, not at all."

The barrister said upon his arrest police seized his computers but there had been no 'paedophilic' searches or material on them.

Pallant, whose businesses have specialised in refurbishing medical facilities for MRI and CT scanners, said the allegations have had a devastating impact on him and his business.