A man accused of raping a woman in an Aberdeen park told a court she made the claim after he called her a “bad name”.
Daniel Sangster is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of raping the woman in Union Terrace Gardens on March 27 2016.
Yesterday, the 29-year-old told the jury he and the woman had met in nightclub The Priory.
He said they had been flirting throughout the night, and that he “possibly” made a sexual innuendo at one point.
He told the court that, after leaving the club, he suggested they went to the gardens where she performed a consensual sex act on him in an alcove.
But he insisted that, after she was upset at him for calling her a “nasty word”, he walked home – and only found out about the rape claim the next morning from a friend.
Advocate depute Margaret Barron, prosecuting, asked Sangster, of Gaitside Drive, Aberdeen, to explain why the woman had been in such a distressed state and why she told others she had been raped.
She said: “She went from happy and calm to hysterical, and was next seen by your friend crying, and then tells another of your friends that she was going to kill you.
“What did you do to turn her into this hysterical creature?”
Sangster replied: “I called her a bad name.”
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During closing speeches, Ms Barron told the jury that the woman’s evidence was “credible and reliable” and that DNA found on her clothing matched Sangster.
However, Sangster’s counsel, solicitor advocate Chris Fyffe, asked the jury to consider if the woman’s story was “plausible or something far-fetched” and “steadfast or shifting”.
“The allegation is to some extent of violent rape,” he added.
“At the taxi rank there was no sign of dishevelment to her clothes.”
He added that a medical examiner had found no injuries on the woman, and that throughout the entire process his client’s telling of the facts had been “consistent”.
The jury will begin considering its verdict today.
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