A MAN accused of raping a woman as she slept told jurors he would ‘never do that to a friend’.

Callum Richards, aged 29, denies raping the woman at a mutual friend’s home on August 17, 2014.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was taken to the house in a drunken state after a night out at a Woodstock pub by Richards and another man, the jury was told.

Speaking via a sign language interpreter at Oxford Crown Court on Friday Richards who is deaf and from Green Lane told the jury of ten men and two women that he had a good relationship with the victim.

Richards said: “I would never do anything creepy like that. She is a friend and I would help her but that is it. I wouldn’t do anything like that.”

On the night in question he admitted drinking as many as six pints but said that on returning to the friend's house he did not carry her upstairs and to her bedroom.

He said: “I wanted to help and [she] is a good friend so I was helping by supporting her.

“No, I couldn’t have because the staircase was so narrow and I left [another friend] to do that.

“I am not sure if she got upstairs, I was not there; I was outside having a cigarette.

“She is my friend and I would not see her in that way, I would not be interested. She is a nice lady but I would not like her in that way.

“I did not want to have sex with her, she is my friend; it is something I would say ‘no thank you’ to.”

Richards was later cleared of rape by jurors in his trial.