A man accused of raping a woman at a north-east hotel has told a court he asked for her consent.
Michael Cockrell is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen, accused of assaulting a woman in Peterhead on February 27 2017.
Giving evidence yesterday, the 32-year-old repeatedly denied the charge and claimed he had asked for her consent before having sex.
As reported by the Press and Journal, when questioned by his defence counsel, advocate David Moggach, about what happened the morning of the alleged incident, Cockrell said he was “cuddling into the back of her” and she consented to have sex.
Cockrell said the first he heard about the accusation was from the complainer’s mother. He told the court she had confronted him in a pub in October 2017 and slapped him across the face.
Cockrell added: “She said to me ‘I know what you did’. I asked her what she meant and what she was on about.
“She said ‘you raped my daughter’ and she slapped me across the face.”
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When asked by Mr Moggach if he raped the woman, he replied “No”.
During closing speeches, advocate depute Lindsey Dalziel, prosecuting, said: “Ultimately, this is a violation of her. She told him she was not in the mood.
“At the time she could have alerted the police or told people straight away. But her position was she was embarrassed to tell her mother and she was scared of Cockrell’s reaction.”
Mr Moggach encouraged the jury to “challenge” and “test” the evidence.
He suggested that the evidence presented by the complainer was “contradictory”.
The trial continues.
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