A NIGHTCLUB DJ accused of raping a young woman in a back lane after having flirted with her inside a busy club told a jury yesterday that he believed "the signals were there".

Married disc jockey Andrew Thompson is alleged to have walked the 21-year-old woman down a dark alleyway after the club closed and raped her in a doorway last November.

Mr Thompson, 23, of Tynemouth Place, Tynemouth, who worked as a DJ in Newcastle's Planet Earth nightclub, has admitted having sex with the woman but denies rape.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court has heard that while working in the club, Thompson made purring noises at the girl as she danced because of the leopardskin skirt she was wearing, and later told her he wanted to have sex with her.

After the attack Mr Thompson is said to have walked the girl back to her friends before going home in a taxi.

The court has been told that the woman enjoyed flirting with the DJ in the club, and after seeing him outside willingly went down the alleyway with him.

Mr Thompson told the jury: "We were talking to each other pretty much all night and there was flirting both ways. I thought the signals were there.

''She was not reluctant to go into the doorway and she never said no and never said stop.

''There was no indication she did not want to have sex."

Asked by Miss Julie Clemitson, defending, how the allegations had affected his relationship with his wife, he replied: ''It's difficult, but we are taking every day as it comes.''

Miss Clemitson has already told the court that the alleged victim only alleged rape after the event because her friends had teased her about what she had been doing, and she was scared her boyfriend might find out.

The jury is expected to retire today.