A 43-year old man on trial for raping two women in his Belfast flat claimed yesterday that the pair were looking for a "sex party".
Orhan Kibar - a Turkish national who has been living in Northern Ireland since 2005 - denied sexually assaulting the women, and instead claimed that not only was any sexual activity consensual, but also instigated by them.
As a trial at Belfast Crown Court entered its second week, Kibar was called to the witness box.
The jury has already heard evidence from both women - who were aged 18 and 19 at the time - who have admitted going back to his flat in November 2017 where they claim they were both raped in separate incidents.
It's the Crown's case that the friends had been at Queen's Students Union and were approached by Kibar after they left premises around 1.30am, who invited them to a party.
After walking to his Russell Court apartment on Claremont Street, the 18-year old said she was attacked and raped in the bathroom while her friend, who fell asleep, said she woke with Kibar naked on top of her, raping her.
The 19-year old also claimed she was raped again in the bathroom.
Kibar was called to the witness box, and after swearing on the Koran, via a translator he denied raping the women.
When asked how he met the two women, Kibar said he was outside the bar listening to music and having a smoke when he was approached by the women.
He said one of them asked for a cigarette and then "asked me if we can have a sex party in my house".
"She asked me if I had cocaine, drugs or alcohol or money," the court heard.
Kibar told the court that he danced with one of the woman who "was showing off her female bits ... she was showing the upper part of her body."
He claimed she then went to the bathroom where "she was making a waving gesture to me, and she also winked one eye at me" and so he followed her.
Kibar said the woman instigated sex. When he was asked about a bite to his left hand - which the woman said she inflicted in a bid to escape - Kibar said "I thought maybe this was kind of a rough sex thing."
Kibar claimed that after consensual intercourse they had an argument in the living room and she left after asking for money and cannabis.
As he was questioned about what happened with the other woman, Kibar said after around 15 minutes he went into his bedroom, and that the woman was in his bed, awake and in her underwear.
Asked what happened then, Kibar said: "When I went near her, she started hugging me and kissing me. I was a bit hesitant but when I saw her desire ... she wanted it, I responded."
Kibar said that after she instigated sexual activity, they had intercourse then she left.
When asked if he followed her to the bathroom where he raped her a second time, Kibar said this was not true.
"I believed they were consenting," he said. "It was consensual sex because they wanted to come to my flat and have a sex party."
He was subsequently charges with, and denies, three counts of rape and one count of false imprisonment.
The trial continues.
