A man accused of raping a Jehovah's Witness he met at a service told police his alleged victim was lying, a jury heard.

Katshi Luputa admitted trying to kiss the woman but maintained that when she said "No" he left her alone.

Luputa, 30, a married man with children, has denied raping and indecently assaulting the woman in December last year.

Lewes Crown Court had earlier heard the woman, in her 20s, describe how she felt stupid and humiliated after she accepted a lift home from him as she waited at a bus stop.

She said instead of taking her home, Luputa drove her to an empty flat in Beaconsfield Road, Brighton, and tricked her into going inside by inviting her to meet friends and relatives. She said when she went in, he stripped her and brutally raped her.

Luputa, of Glyndebourne Avenue, Saltdean, denied having sex with the woman in interviews he gave to detectives with the help of an interpreter which were read out to the jury.

He said he had met the woman by chance several times since the service and he had once asked her to be his girlfriend. But, he said, he did not find her attractive.

He said: "She was not a woman after whom I would run. She is not even pretty."

He said on the evening of the alleged attack he had seen the woman, whose name he could not remember, and offered her a lift home but he detoured to his former flat because he had been trying to arrange for some furniture to be collected.

He said: "I touched her and I wanted to kiss her and she said no and if you want to make love to me I will scream. She was talking stupid things. I did not see her again."

He said he started to drive her home after they left the flat but she was not talking to him so he left her at the Vogue gyratory to find her own way home.

Luputa told officers he was astonished and surprised by her allegations.

He said: "I am very happy with myself because I didn't rape this girl."

The court has heard forensic tests found Luputa's DNA on the alleged victim's clothes.

The trial continues.