A FORMER councillor accused of raping a teenaged girl in a house in Caerphilly said sex with her was totally consensual.

"At no time in bed did she give the impression of being uncomfortable and I believed she was close to 17" said 68-year-old Alan Jolly.

Jolly, of Lower Salisbury Street, Tredegar, has pleaded not guilty at Cardiff crown court to raping the girl.

Prosecutor Janet McDonald said the offence occurred over twenty years ago when the girl was 15 or 16 and Jolly was thirty years older.

Jolly claimed to the police that throughout she was an active participant, suggested going to bed and instigated the sexual activity.

In 2003 Jolly contacted the now grown up woman by letter in "very suggestive terms." This made her feel sick and angry and she contacted the police.

Jolly, an ex-civil engineer, who had worked in the Middle East said he first met the girl in a bar in Tredegar when she tapped him on the shoulder.

She was very friendly, he said, and they left together and went into a gully and began kissing.

They met again at the same pub, went to the cousin's home, had a cup of coffee and went upstairs and had sex once.

"I didn't force myself on her at all and she didn't say stop. "The next day I took her shopping in Newport and bought her clothes and I then took her home."

Two or three days later, he said, the girl's mother rang and shouted abuse at him. There was no mention of rape, said Jolly.

Proceeding.