A MARRIED restaurateur told a court yesterday how he was lured from his marital bed to have a sexual liaison with a guest in their spare room.

Mark Hird, 28, is accused of raping the woman after she crashed out following a late-night drinking session.

But the father-of-one told Newcastle Crown Court yesterday how the woman encouraged him to have sex with her while his wife slept next door.

He said the incident occurred after he returned home from work at the Tavistock Place Restaurant, in the early hours of June 22 last year.

He told the court the woman had beckoned him to bed, and they had had sex.

He said: "I started coming to my senses . . . what was I doing, my wife was next door. I stopped and moved away and said 'what are we doing'."

Hird also told the court how he initially denied the liaison to police out of fear that his wife would find out.

He said: "I obviously panicked. It was fear of losing my wife, losing my three-month-old baby, my house, my business, the restaurant.

"I wish I had not succumbed to the temptation. I wish it had never happened. There is no truth in the (rape) allegations whatsoever."

Hird of Burdon Hall, Burdon Village, Sunderland, denies rape and the trial continues.