A MAN accused of raping a woman while she was unconscious after a house party has denied they ever had sex.

Radiet Meles, aged 27, of Potter Street, Newport, is on trial at Cardiff Crown Court with the prosecution claiming he attacked the complainant last summer.

The defendant, who is from Eritrea and is following the case in the Tigrinya language through an interpreter, denies rape and attempted rape.

Prosecutor Heath Edwards has told the jury that the complainant was “far too drunk” to consent to sex.

He said she had been awoken in the back of an ambulance by a police officer in Newport on Tuesday, August 14, 2018.

Giving evidence in his defence, Meles told his barrister Eugene Egan, he had kissed the complainant at the party.

The defendant, who he said his known as ‘Sammy’, told how he had drunk vodka at the get-together.

When he was asked by Mr Egan what he and the complainant had done together at the party, the jury of four men and eight women heard Meles say: “We were dancing, we were playing and we were drinking.”

He admitted they had kissed and he claimed she had touched him sexually, and he may have her, but denied having intercourse with her.

Meles was asked by Mr Egan to tell the court about his background. He said he was born in Eritrea and came to the UK “in a lorry” in 2015 after travelling from France via the Channel Tunnel.

Meles told of how he was detained in Dover for two days before he was released and arrived in Cardiff before settling in Newport.

The jury heard how he worked at a food packaging in the city and had previously had jobs with Amazon and as a car washer.

On the opening day of the trial, Mr Edwards said: “During Monday, August 13, 2018, the complainant went into Newport city centre drinking.”

The jury heard how she and others made their way back to a house where a party was held.

The prosecutor added: “The complainant herself has little clear recollection of the events or the chronology at this time as she was heavily intoxicated.

“The next memory she has of the events that night is of her being awoken in the back of an ambulance by a police officer and being told that the defendant had been having sex with her.

“That was not something that she had consented to – she was far too drunk for that.”

Mr Edwards told the court that the alleged attack was witnessed by people who had been present at the party. Proceeding.