A FRUIT picker accused of the rape of a 19-year-old woman on a beach has told a court that the complainant had consented to have sexual activity with him.

Madalin-Daniel Nitu, 23, Genghiz Iasear, 27, and Ionel-Mizel Ciocan, 25, all farm workers from Romania working at Groves Farm, Colworth, Chichester, are accused of raping the teenager in the early hours of March 9 in Bognor Regis.

The trial at Portsmouth Crown Court has heard the alleged victim met Ciocan during a drunken night-out at a nightclub.

The court has heard that the complainant was then alleged to have been raped orally in an alleyway by Ciocan and Iasear.

Iasear and Nitu are also accused of orally raping the complainant on the beach and Iasear is charged with raping her on the beach assisted by the other two defendants.

Rebecca Austin, prosecution, claims the alleged victim “was in absolutely no fit state to consent” and the defendants would have been “well aware”.

Nitu, speaking through an interpreter, has told the trial that he asked for consent from the complainant and said she was able to give her consent.

He said that sexual contact between them only stopped on the beach when the complainant’s friend arrived “screaming”.

Nitu said that the complainant said to him “Stop, that’s my friend coming” and added: “She was performing oral sex on me and pulled her head away and said ‘We stop’. I pulled my trousers back up.”

He added that the complainant was “just normal” and “not screaming or wailing”.

He said that he had not told police when first questioned about the oral sex “because I was scared, I didn’t know what was happening”.

He added that he and the other two defendants only ran away to catch a taxi.

Iasear faces three counts of rape while Ciocan and Nitu face two counts of rape.

The defendants deny the charges and say the sex was consensual.

The trial continues.