A MAN who is alleged to have raped a woman he met on dating site Tinder said mobile phone texts he sent to her about rough, forceful sex were stupid and “just banter”.

Kristian Stevenson, 20, was quizzed about two text messages, the first of which said: “I want to hold you down on the sofa and f*** you.”

Giving evidence in his defence he said: “They were stupid messages I should not have sent.”

Two weeks after the first message, prosecutor Shaun Dodds said Mr Stevenson sent another text to the woman, describing how his perfect night would be topped off with “rough drunk sex”.

Mr Stevenson said: “It was banter really.”

Mr Dodds asked: “Do you have a thing about rough sex?” The defendant said he did not.

Mr Stevenson accepted that in the build up to the alleged rape in November 2016 he sent some fairly graphic sexual texts to the woman and she had not replied.

Mr Dodds said previously the woman had clearly indicated the meetings which went on to take place at both their homes were not about sex, but were about forming a relationship.

He also described how in their first encounter she had struggled to pull Mr Stevenson’s hand away from her private parts.

During Mr Stevenson’s cross-examination, Mr Dodds said: “You knew full well she did not want to have sex?”

Mr Stevenson, of Northleach Drive, Hemlington, Middlesbrough, replied: “She wanted to have sex, yeah.”

Earlier, Mr Stevenson was asked about another text message exchange after the alleged rape in which his accuser said sex had not been what she wanted, but he carried on anyway.

The defendant sent a message back which said: “I know I shouldn’t have.”

Asked by his barrister Chris Morrison what that meant, he said: “Just having sex pretty quickly. We both dived into it.”

Mr Stevenson said the woman looked like she was enjoying it and afterwards they sat side by side on the bed together discussing a holiday they had both had to the same destination.

He then got up to leave and she gave him a goodbye kiss.

Mr Stevenson, who denies rape and sexual assault, said: “I thought we had left on good terms, just as normal.”

The trial at Teesside Crown Court continues.