A MAN accused of a string of sex offences with young people over a period of almost 20 years denies having spiked the drinks of two teenage women staying overnight at his home.

Stanley Simpson was questioned over alleged sexual offences involving a woman aged about 16, who the prosecution claims he allowed to stay at his home with her 15-year-old friend, after they went to the advice centre where he worked, seeking assistance about being re-housed.

He was said to have agreed to let them stay with him for a few days until a flat became available.

The prosecution alleges Simpson gave them each an alcopop, and neither has much recollection of what took place after that.

But the woman, aged 16 at the time, said she woke naked in bed with him and felt as if she had been raped.

Simpson claimed he did have consensual sex with her, but thought she was older.

Questioned by police about the incident, it was put to Simpson that both women staying over said they must have “blanked out”, despite only having one drink.

During the 2014 interview, Detective Constable Lisa Stafford asked Simpson: “Is there in any way anything that could have been put in those drinks, to your knowledge, Stan?

He replied: “Considering they weren’t there, it must have been a miracle. It must have been some magic.”

Asked, in the same interview, about an allegation that he shared a bed with two underage boys, having shown them a soft pornographical film, he replied: “Absolute crap.”

The 50-year-old, of Peniston Road, Pennywell, Sunderland, denies a total of 34 charges, including six of rape, involving seven alleged victims.

All were said to have taken place at homes where he lived in Sunderland, and in Ouston, near Chester-le-Street, between 1980 and about 2000.