A man accused of being one of two men who ran up behind a woman and attempted to rape her after bundling her into an Ipswich town centre car park has denied being involved in the alleged attack.

Giving evidence during his trial at Ipswich Crown Court Danut Gheorghe denied deliberately following the woman with his friend George-hari Constantinescu as she walked alone in the early hours of the morning after a Saturday night out with friends.

Gheorghe and Constantinescu, both 30, of Farnham Road, Blaxhall, deny attempted rape, and an alternative charge of sexual assault.

The court has heard that the alleged victim was walking along Rope Walk just before 3.30am on February 25 when she heard two men running behind her.

One of them allegedly put his hands over her mouth and she was bundled into a car park.

During the alleged attack she suffered injuries to her head and face and when she came round after losing consciousness she was naked from the waist down.

Prosecutor Andrew Jackson told the jury: “It is the prosecution’s case that in those early hours these defendants were predatory rapists.

“They followed (the woman) into that road, and there attacked and intended to rape her.

“They say that they were not the men who attacked and tried to rape (the woman).

“Therefore the central issue you are going to have to resolve in this trial is whether or not you are sure that in the case of each of these defendants that they were responsible for that attempted rape.”

He said the victim’s handbag and its contents had not been touched so the motive could not have been robbery.

“Accordingly the prosecution say that this attack can only have been done to her with the intention of raping her,” said Mr Jackson.

During his evidence Gheorghe told the court he had come to the UK from Romania in January and had been working on a farm.

He denied that he and Constantinescu had hidden behind a garden wall while following the alleged victim of the attempted rape and that they had identified the woman as someone they could sexually assault.

The trial continues at Ipswich Crown Court tomorrow.