A 19-year-old man has taken the stand at Ipswich Crown Court to deny raping a teenage girl in a park three years ago.

Riley Lloyd is accused of raping the girl when he was aged 16, in 2018.

Lloyd is alleged to have forced himself on the girl as she struggled to get away from him.

Giving evidence from behind a screen earlier this week, the girl accepted that she had gone to a private area in Bourne Park with Lloyd – but denied wanting anything sexual to happen between them.

Cross-examined by Lloyd’s barrister Andrew Thompson, she denied flirting with Lloyd and then kissing him on the lips and offering to perform a sex act on him.

On Wednesday, Lloyd, of Glastonbury Close, Ipswich, took the stand to deny the allegation and claimed the girl had been lying.

Lloyd told jurors he had initially told police there had been no kind of sexual contact, consensual or otherwise, because he was scared, and having been accompanied by his parents in interview, did not want them to know.

He denied having then created a story to fit the forensic evidence, which included a sample of DNA taken from semen found on the girl's sleeve.

The trial continues.