A woman who was allegedly gang raped by three men reacted angrily when one said he would tell her boyfriend she willingly had sex, a court heard.

Menghistu Bizabhu, 21, told Lewes Crown Court the woman initiated sex by kissing him and then lying down on a mattress with him at a flat in St Michael's Place, Brighton.

The prosecution alleges the 21-year-old woman was drugged, threatened with a knife and raped.

Bizabhu denies rape, false imprisonment and assault, Yafat Berhane, 18, of London and Serge Agro, 24, of no fixed abode, both deny rape and false imprisonment. Pedro Baptiste, of St Michael's Place, denies a single charge of false imprisonment.

Speaking through an interpreter, Ethiopian-born Bizabhu, who lived in Sackville Road, Hove, at the time of the alleged offences in April last year, said he spent the evening smoking heroin and crack.

The woman was waiting with a friend for her boyfriend at the flat in St Michael's Place with the men after accepting a lift from a Brighton bar.

Bizabhu said after the friend left, he walked into the bathroom and discovered the alleged victim in a sexual act with Agro.

He said: "After I went in she started kissing me. She started touching me and I started touching her.

"Had she not been willing she wouldn't have touched me when I went into the toilet."

Later the same night Bizabhu said the woman lay down on a mattress with him. He claimed she knew what she was doing and was not semi-conscious as had been alleged.

Bizabhu said: "I was lying down and she started touching me, all over the body.

"She looked drunk, enough to make you happy.

"How could she not know if she got up off the sofa and came and touched me?"

He said they then had sex.

Bizabhu said when he was told she had slept with the others he was disgusted and started calling her names.

He said: "I told her I would tell her boyfriend she had sex with everyone in the house.

"She got up and looked vexed and she started looking for her shoes."

The trial continues.