Rape claim woman `not offered Aids test'

A woman who claims she was raped and indecently assaulted by the comic actor Craig Charles and two other men said yesterday that she had neither refused nor been offered the morning after pill, or an Aids test following the alleged attack.

She told a jury at Southwark Crown Court on the third day of the trial of Mr Charles, 30, and Jack Peploe, 36, that "no way had a doctor offered me any pills to stop pregnancy".

The woman was replying to questions from Stephen Solley QC, counsel for Mr Charles. During his cross-examination Mr Solley had asked her why she had turned down the tests when she could possibly risk pregnancy.

Mr Charles from Kennington, south London, and Mr Peploe, from Camberwell, south London, have both pleaded not guilty to one charge of rape and four others of indecent assault.

The woman, who once had a relationship with the actor - star of the cult television science fiction series, Red Dwarf - claims three men came into her south London flat at about 5.30am on 8 July last year.

Although the men were invited in she claims that she was then subjected against her will to a series of degrading assaults, including penetrative and oral sex. The woman, a former exotic dancer, has denied it was she who put on a "sex show" for the men and that the rape was fictitious.

Yesterday, the court was told that during the woman's relationship with Mr Charles they had both used cocaine. She said she had stopped taking the drug since their relationship ended.

The case continues today.