A FORMER bank worker accused of the violent rape of a 34-year-old woman in Colchester 16 years ago has told a court that he may have had a one night stand with her.

Peter Hull said that at the time of the alleged rape in July 1994 he had regularly picked up women in bars in Colchester and had casual sex with them in a number of locations including Castle Park and public toilets.

He claimed that he only ever had consensual sex with the women and that if a woman said “no” he would stop as it would have gone against a “deeply held core belief” to do otherwise.

Hull said that as his DNA was found in semen on the alleged rape victim’s thigh he had to accept he had sexual contact with her but he had no memory of it.

He said he had heard the alleged victim give evidence in court from behind a screen and had been shown a photograph of her but neither of these had jogged his memory.

Questioned by prosecution counsel Stephen Harvey QC Hull, who is 6ft 4” tall and weighs 18 stone, denied that he had spent the last 16 years since the alleged rape thinking he had got away with it until police knocked at his door last year.

He also denied a suggestion by Mr Harvey that his past had come back to bite him. “I’m not capable of that type of assault,” he said.

Hull, 40, of Normandy Avenue, Colchester, has denied indecent assault, attempted buggery, attempted rape and rape on July 2, 1994.

It has been alleged that the alleged victim was walking home late at night when a man asked her for directions and then pushed her into an off licence car park in East Street, Colchester, and brutally raped her.

The woman claimed she was repeatedly punched in the face and that the man threatened to kill her if she screamed.

The court heard that swabs were taken from Hull last year following his arrest for an alleged incident of domestic violence on his partner.

Hull was arrested on suspicion of raping the 34-year-old woman in 1994 after his DNA was entered on a national police database and found to match that found on the alleged rape victim.

The court was told that the chances of the DNA found in semen on the alleged victim’s thigh coming from anyone other than Hull were one in a billion.

The trial continues today (Thurs).