A MAN was so determined not to take any "nonsense" from a 21-year-old that he raped her, Swindon Crown Court heard.

Susan Evans, prosecuting, told the jury that the alleged victim had rejected Daniel Ward's advances on several previous occasions.

Ward, 25, of North Wall, Cricklade, and co-accused Michael Gibbs, 27, of The Willows, Highworth, both deny raping the young woman at an address in Gorse Hill.

Standing in the witness box, Ward answered questions from his counsel, Peter Fortune.

When quizzed if he had forced the woman to have sex, he replied: "No I did not, she was a willing participant.

"I asked her if she wanted to come back and she said yes. I then sought clarification.

"Not once did she tell me or Mike that she wanted to stop. Had she done that, that would have been the end of it."

And throughout a lengthy grilling by Miss Evans, Ward maintained the woman had consented to the boozy "threesome" sex-session following a night out in Swindon town centre in February last year.

After catching a taxi near Edwards Bar, where they had been drinking with friends, the three of travelled the short distance to Ponting Street in Gorse Hill.

Once inside the house, which a friend of Ward's allowed him to use as a regular stopover, all three undressed.

Ward claimed he and his friend then took turns to have sex with the woman.

At an earlier hearing Mr Fortune had suggested the woman had invented the rape allegations through shame at having group sex with the men.

But Miss Evans said Ward, who had consumed around seven pints of lager that night, had stepped over the line and refused to take no for an answer.

"The truth is that you raped her and treated her like she was less than human," she told Ward.

"And the truth is that she was pushed to the floor and forced to have sex against her will.

"As far as you were concerned you were not going to listen to her when she said no that was just her giving you nonsense."

The court was told that the woman had, on a previous occasion, agreed to go home with Ward but then refused.

Miss Evans said he was not about to let that happen again and claimed Ward had pinned the woman's arms down during sex an allegation denied.

Earlier, the prosecution's case had ended by the calling up of several witnesses.

Among them was taxi driver Stephen Fox.

He told the jury how the woman had flagged him down at the junction of Corporation Street and Manchester Road and got in the car.

Mr Fox said: "She started sobbing when we got to County Road, I asked her if she wanted to talk about it but she said no."

The trial continues.

Kevin Shoesmith