A CONVICTED murderer who allegedly sexually assaulted a teenage girl while on remand from prison has insisted there were several occasions where she could have got out of his car if she was unhappy.

A CONVICTED murderer who allegedly sexually assaulted a teenage girl while on remand from prison has insisted there were several occasions where she could have got out of his car if she was unhappy.

Ipswich Crown Court heard extracts from police interviews in which David Lant gave details of the car journey undertaken by the pair on the day the assaults were alleged to have happened.

Lant, now 61, denies attempting to rape the girl and five offences of sexually assaulting her on October 28, 2004.

He claims that prior to that day the alleged victim, who had financial problems, had told him that if he gave her £50 “she would do anything he wanted” and that when he told her about his caravan in Thurston she had said it would be an “ideal place.”

During the interviews, he describes how the pair travelled to the caravan, where he claims they had a “snogging session” and engaged in sexual activity.

After leaving Thurston the pair travelled to the Beacon Hill service station so he could fill up his car with petrol - using £30 of the £50 he had given her.

He said: “I left her in the car while I went to get petrol. It was unlocked. If she was unhappy all she had to do was get out of the car.”

He claims that after this the girl wanted to carry on what they had started at the caravan so they drove to a deserted track close at Barham where he performed a sexual act on her until they were disturbed by some walkers.

He said: “All of a sudden she realised there were a couple of people looking in the window, but they carried on walking up the hill.

“If they had seen she was in distress they would have done something.”

Lant said the pair then went to Sutton Heath where they found a quiet spot and engaged in more sexual activity in the back of his car, which she fully consented to.

He told police that her mood changed on the way back to Ipswich when he asked her what her boyfriend would think about her selling her body.

The court has heard that Lant was jailed for murder in 1977 and had been nearing the end of his sentence at Hollesley Bay open prison.

His alleged victim claims that when they arrived at the caravan Lant offered to pay her £200 a month if she had sex with him.

She told the court that when she refused he threw a kitchen knife across the caravan before sexually assaulting her.

The trial continues.