A FORMER student has denied raping a woman and sexually assaulting two others, one of his alleged victims claiming she punched him in the face after he tried to hold her down.

Samual Ringer was a Worcester student living at the St John’s campus when the alleged attacks took place.

The 20-year-old now of Longfield Lane, Ilkeston, Derbyshire denies two counts of rape, two sexual assaults and one sexual assault by penetration at a trial at Hereford Crown Court.

Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, read out statements from one of the complainant's friends. They said they saw Ringer coming out of a room in Worcester and found her in a bathroom slouched to one side with her elbows on the toilet seat on January 16 last year after a night out at Bushwackers.

Her friends said she had told them she had pretended to be sick to get Ringer off her.

Ringer said the two had been flirting and he offered to walk her home because she was 'stumbling a bit', that they put their arms around each other and began kissing and cuddling at a flat, him holding her hair back and reassuring her while she was sick in a toilet. He later told her friends she needed help because she had passed out on the toilet, saying they had given him 'funny looks' when he left. He disputed her claim that he had held her arms down or that she had punched him in the chin area, telling his friends 'does it look like I've been punched?'

Another complainant told police she had been raped by Ringer in Worcester on the same day. Police had advised her to have a physical examination but she said her GP had refused to carry it out, performing a welfare check instead.

Ringer was arrested on January 25 last year and his mobile phone was seized.

He said that he was trying to reassure the woman who had accused him of rape because she had been crying, asking her: "Are you okay?" He said he walked her home and there was a connection between them and 'it felt intimate'. He said he asked her if they would sleep together and he said she replied: "Oh yeah."

Ringer said she led him into a Worcester flat where they kissed and had consensual sex, describing her as a 'willing participant'.

"At no point has she said 'I don't want to do this'" said Ringer in interview.

He told officers she said: "Do whatever you want to me. I'm not bothered."

Ringer accepted he told her not to tell anyone about what had happened, telling her 'let's keep it a secret'. He said his male friends had challenged him saying: "What did you do to her because she's basically accusing you of raping her?"

He fell out with his friends who said they did not believe him. Ringer said he had been 'absolutely distraught at this point'. Ringer told police she did not say the sex was painful or uncomfortable. He denied that the alleged victim had said no and pushed him away or her claim that ' I kept thinking he would hit me'.

She had told officers the experience was 'disgusting'.

The trial continues.