AN alleged sex attacker has told a jury that he was stunned when he was accused of raping a woman in her home.

Keith Robertson said moments earlier he had been drinking and kissing his accuser and making plans to see her again.

The 51-year-old claims he was surprised when, for no apparent reason, she told him: “You’ve just totally raped me.”

He admitted being asked to leave the house, but told the Teesside Crown Court jury that he could not understand why. Some time later, he called the police to say he was being accused of rape but insisted he had not had sex with the woman.

Yesterday, on the second day of his trial, Mr Robertson – who is known as Jake – reiterated his denials from the witness box.

Asked by his barrister, Brian Russell, if he had forced himself upon the woman, Mr Robertson simply replied: “No.”

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Shaun Dodds, the defendant disputed the account given by his accuser.

“Nothing happened,”

he told the court. “I didn’t know what to think. I could not believe it. I was shocked.”

Mr Robertson, of Thomas Street, Shildon, County Durham, denies raping the woman in the early hours of May 1 last year.

He told the jury that they had spent the evening drinking at her home and appeared to be getting on famously.

They kissed and he gave her love-bites on her neck before they began touching one another, he said in his evidence.

The woman, who is in her 40s, claims she was then pinned to the floor in her living room and raped by Mr Robertson.

He told the jury that she made the accusation after they touched, but she very soon confessed: “I think I have taken it the wrong way.”

The woman told the court that she sent a text message to her son ordering him to return home when she was being attacked.

Mr Robertson said he saw her using her mobile telephone when they kissed, but did not know who she was contacting or why. “No sexual intercourse occurred at all,” he told the court yesterday.

“I was surprised at what she said.”

The jury heard that Mr Robertson drank ten bottles of beer while the woman drank at least four litres of strong cider. On a scale of one to ten of drunkenness, Mr Robertson placed her at a nine when questioned by police about the allegation.

In his evidence to the court, he said he was content that she knew what she was doing when they kissed. The trial judge is expected to sum up the case today before the jury of seven women and five men retires to consider its verdict.