A WOMAN who claims she was raped by a homeless man while sleeping rough outside Oxford Magistrates’ Court yesterday recalled the moment she was allegedly attacked.

The woman told a jury of eight men and four women at Oxford Crown Court she expected to go to sleep when she lay down between Jed Francis and another man.

She then began having sex with the other man, but said Francis joined in and raped her, before leaving the scene shortly afterwards.

Francis denies raping the woman twice in the car park outside the court, off Speedwell Street, on March 28 last year.

The woman added: “I did not think anything was going to happen.

“I thought I was just going to go to sleep.”

She told the court Francis later returned and raped her a second time outside the magistrates’ court.

Defence barrister Ed Butler put it to the woman that she had sex with Francis the day before the alleged rapes.

He said: “What I’m going to suggest is that on that Friday morning, you saw Jed and you offered him sex and you went down to one of the benches by the river and had sex.”

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, replied: “No, that’s not true.”

Mr Butler continued: “And you in fact asked Jed for £20.”

The woman replied: “That’s not true.”

During the first day of the hearing on Monday, the court heard that Francis, of Long Readings Lane, Slough, Berkshire, had been sleeping rough with another man outside the magistrates’ court.

Prosecutor Fern Russell said Francis was arrested after the woman directed officers to a nearby doorway where the 24-year-old defendant was sleeping.

The trial continues.