A man accused of raping a stranger and stealing her handbag told a Lincoln jury that the woman agreed to sex within minutes of meeting him.

Marek Musial said he met the woman as she left the Sugarcubes night club in Lincoln and helped her across the road as she tripped due to a combination of the amount of alcohol she had drunk and unsteadiness due to her high heels.

Musial (45), giving evidence via a Polish interpreter, said: "I asked if she was ok and she said she was fine. She asked me to take her home. I didn't know where she lived. She was leading the way.

"She was laughing and she was singing a song. She was trying to dance while walking."

Musial, of Avondale Street, Lincoln, said they began kissing and then went together into a garden area of a block of flats on Spring Hill where they had sex.

He told the jury: "She liked me. She fancied me. There was no rejection. She wanted it. She knew what was going on. Nothing happened without her consent."

Musial admitted keeping the woman's bag at his home for six weeks and to spending a £10 note belonging to her. He also admitted using her hair brush and her key fob which were in the bag.

But he denied he stole the bag saying that he held it while the woman was dressing, but then she disappeared.

He denies rape and theft and the trial continues.

For more on this case, see Friday's Echo.