MEDICAL evidence could not establish whether a woman was raped in her own home last year, the Royal Court heard yesterday.

While examinations confirmed that sexual intercourse had taken place between the man and the woman, it could not be used to indicate whether it was with her consent or not.

The man was arrested in his own bed on suspicion of rape just hours after the alleged incident, between 5.30am and 6am on 31 May last year, at the house the woman shared with her fiance.

The couple had been out for a meal with friends the night before and the woman had been put to bed by her fiance, who described her as having been very drunk.

He then fell asleep on the sofa downstairs while watching a film, only to be woken the next morning by the woman shouting that a man she had thought was her fiance had had sex with her.

Police arrested the man just a few hours later. Items of his clothing were seized from his bedroom and he was handcuffed.

His taped interviews with police were read out in the Royal Court yesterday by prosecuting Crown Advocate Graeme McKerrell and Inspector Nigel Burnard.

The man said that the day before the alleged offence he had gone to four Town pubs after work from about 5pm, drinking five or six pints of lager and four vodkas with Coke before last orders.

He shared a taxi home with a relative and saw a party going on nearby and decided to join in, although he did not know anybody there. He went for a swim in the pool and then went into the house dripping wet. He was asked to leave and went home to get changed out of his shorts and T-shirt and into jeans and a long-sleeved top.

He set out to return to the party at about 1.30am, but could not remember which house it was in.

One house had its lights on and its front door open, so he said he walked straight upstairs to see if anyone was there.

He tried a couple of rooms before going into a bedroom where he removed his jeans and top, jumped into the double bed and fell asleep. He told police that he had been really drunk and that going into the house was ‘stupid’ and not something he would do when he was sober.

About five hours later, he said, he woke up to find his arm over a naked woman beside him. He had never seen her before.

He claimed that there was some foreplay before they had sex, although the woman said that she had woken up to find him on top of her in the act.

After intercourse, during which he claimed that nothing had been said while she maintained she told him to get off, he said that she had gone straight downstairs. He got dressed and went to leave as he felt it was an ‘uncomfortable situation’.

A man downstairs asked if he had had sex with his ‘wife’. He said that he did not know that it was his wife – he thought there was no one in the bed when he got in it.

He said that the fiance then told him to get out, which he did – going back home to his bed.

He told police that the incident was ‘shameful and embarrassing’, but a natural thing that had happened. He said that he certainly did not rape her or use any force. He denied that she had pushed him away, which she said she had. He said the room had been quite light, they could see each other and that she was awake.

He said that it was an ‘accident’, that he had no intention of forcing himself on anyone and that he had walked into the wrong house.

‘I feel so sickened by it all. I’m certainly not a rapist,’ he told police.

He said that maybe she had felt ‘guilty or dirty’ about it and was putting the blame on him due to having a boyfriend.

Two police officers who attended the couple’s home shortly after the alleged rape said that the woman was in shock and upset.

A scenes-of-crime officer took photos of the bedroom.

Medical examinations of the man and the woman indicated that sexual intercourse had taken place between them. No marks on the defendant were attributable to the incident and there was no sign of injury to the woman – internally or externally.

But Dr Catherine Paterson, a London-based independent expert with experience in forensic gynaecology, said that it was unusual to see genital injuries, even when violence was used.

Commenting on a doctor’s report, she said that the fact that there were no injuries did not clarify whether sex had been consensual or not.

Advocate Peter Ferbrache, defending, said she could not say that there had been a rape in this case.

Dr Paterson said that people experienced cycles of sexual arousal during sleep and could have an automatic physiological response to touch when asleep.

She said that if someone was almost asleep and assumed it was their partner, then the sexual act could continue.

The woman would not have looked to see if anything was wrong.

Statements from one of the couple’s friends, who had been present the night before, stated that the fiance had called her to their house that morning, crying and saying that the woman needed her.

Both were crying in the kitchen when the woman arrived to comfort her friend.

The trial continues today.