A SOLDIER told a court yesterday he paid a woman £60 for sex before she accused him of raping her in an alleyway.

Scots Guard Mili Kaitani, 22, said the 25-year-old was drunk when she led him from a nightclub in Catterick, North Yorkshire, after he gave her three £20 notes.

Mr Kaitani said they were sheltering from rain at 2am when she took his hand and put it inside her underwear.

He said: "I started taking her clothes off. She did not tell me to stop. I am not a rapist, I did not hit her, she enjoyed it."

They were interrupted by North Yorkshire Police Sergeant Andrew Quaye.

Mr Kaitani said he ran off when the woman told the officer she did not know him.

The mother-of-three, who was five months pregnant at the time, told Teesside Crown Court over a video link that Mr Kaitani dragged her into the alley and pushed her to the ground into a pool of water.

She said that she was bleeding from a mouth injury and crying and begging him to stop as he raped her.

Mr Kaitani, who was on a night out from Catterick Garrison, was chased and caught by an Army officer and police.

Sgt Quaye said police often saw couples having sex in alleys in the garrison town.

Detective Constable Christopher Burton, of Richmond CID, said earlier that he told Kaitani the woman did not have £60 when she was comforted after reporting the incident.

Mr Kaitani, based in Edinburgh, denies rape on January 11. The case continues.