A SWINDON man accused of rape told a court the alleged victim was his ex-girlfriend and had consented to sex.

Vladimir Krsteski, 21, from The Thatchers, Abbey Meads, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape.

A young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, accused Krsteski of raping her at a guesthouse in County Road on June 5.

On the second day of the trial at Swindon Crown Court a jury heard the statement Krsteski gave to police when he was arrested on June 6.

He said the woman had been his girlfriend for several months in 2008 during which period they had sex numerous times.

The relationship had petered out, he said, and they did not have contact for almost a year. He said he had contacted her this summer when he found that her fiance had just been murdered.

He invited her to Swindon to stay with him at the Angelique Guesthouse in County Road and went to pick her up in his friend’s car on the evening of June 4.

Krsteski said his friend Ali Hassan, 24, also spent the night in the couple’s room where they all drank wine and ate takeaway food before Krsteski and the woman snorted cocaine, which Mr Hassan had collected.

The defendant said that after Mr Hassan left at around 5am the woman called him to the bed He said at first he just cuddled her but when she moved her hands onto his boxer shorts he initiated sex. He denied that the woman had resisted or asked him to stop.

He said: “No way had I forced her. She wanted it.”

The woman has denied Krsteski’s version of events and claims she woke up to find him on top of her.

The court also heard from Mr Hassan, who said he received a call from the woman shortly after he left the guesthouse in which she begged him to pick her up and take her home.

Asked what she told him when he arrived at the guesthouse, Mr Hassan said: “She said: ‘He jumped on me’. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe her. But I wasn’t there.”

Mr Hassan admitted he had worried about getting involved with the police investigation in case his wife found out he had spent the night on the same bed as another woman.

He stressed that he had been fully clothed the entire time.

Evidence was also given by Ricky Porter, who owns the guesthouse, who said he had not heard any commotion coming from the room despite sleeping directly underneath.

The trial continues.