A BARMAN has denied raping a student three times in a York alleyway.

Simon Christopher Nunns said in his evidence to police: “At no point did she say to me, ‘no, stop’ or ‘I do not want to do this’.”

It is alleged that Nunns, 29, of Hampden Street, Bishophill, took the 18-year-old to Judges Court, behind the former Ha! Ha! bar in New Street, where he worked at the time, and sexually abused her.

But Nunns said he had met the woman on a night out with friends and suggested the two of them should go to sit on steps behind Ha! Ha! bar. In a police statement which was read to the court, Nunns said: “It seemed like the girl needed to sit down. I said there was a set of steps where she could sit down.

“I did not think about whether it was secluded or not, just that she needed to sit down.”

Nunns said they kissed, which was not instigated by one of them in particular but was a “50-50” decision, before having sex.

“At no point did she say to me, ‘no, stop’ or ‘I do not want to do this’,” he said, adding: “There was no arguing, no refusals.”

Nunns said the woman sped off afterwards, but he later saw a woman who looked like her in a police van. He said thought he heard a police radio issue a description of man with “spiky black hair” but did not immediately realise it was to do with him.

Even when a police appeal for information about the alleged rape behind Ha! Ha! bar was printed in The Press, Nunns said he still thought it could have been a coincidence. The court also heard from his friend and colleague Carl Dunnington, who told York Crown Court Nunns had called him shortly after the attack is alleged to have happened in the early hours of November 10 last year to say he was “worried” about a girl being led into a police van.

Transcripts of a text conversation between Nunns and Mr Dunnington later that day revealed Nunns asked whether CCTV near the bar had been working and said: “I can’t believe she’d lie about something like this,” the court heard.

Mr Dunnington said Nunns “didn’t know what to do”, adding: “He was a bit of a mess and I tried to advise him to go to the police and sort the whole issue out.”

Michael Williams, a doorman at the Willow restaurant in Coney Street, told the court the female student approached him alone just after 4am, saying: “She was absolutely petrified. She had been crying, and she was very nervous and kept looking around.”

He also said the woman told him a man had attacked her and “tried raping me”.