A MAN accused of raping a clubber in an alleyway was found near the venue in which he had met the woman with his arm around her waist, talking to her and smiling, a court heard.

Suranga Wijethunga, of Speedwell Street, Oxford, denies a single count of rape in the early hours of June 18 last year after meeting the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at Oxford’s Atik nightclub.

As his trial at Oxford Crown Court continued yesterday, the 32-year old heard from friends and relatives of the alleged victim who each gave their version of events of the night in question.

One man, an Oxford University student at the time of the incident, told jurors that on leaving the nightclub at about 1.30am he found the woman sitting beneath the sign of the nearby Kiss bar in Park End Street together with Wijethunga.

He said Wijethunga had an arm around her and was smiling at the woman.

He told the court: “I saw them sitting under a sign that said Kiss on it, in a hole just to the right of the club and [the woman] was sitting there with the alleged offender, a man with his arm around [her].

“She was clearly in distress, she looked like she was crying.

“He was looking at her smiling, trying to speak to her, she pretty much immediately got up when we approached.”

The alleged victim, he told the court, then told him and another friend that Wijethunga had raped her in a nearby alleyway.

He added: “He was lurking in a way I describe as a predatory manner, staring at [the alleged victim].”

It was then, the witness said, that Wijethunga began to walk off from the group and the witness took it upon himself to chase after him for a few minutes before giving up the chase.

Fellow members of the group of clubbers also gave accounts and told the jury that they had each drank very little before entering the club.

They said while inside, at a VIP booth, two of them, including the alleged victim, very quickly became ill.

Earlier in the trial the jury heard a recorded police interview with the alleged victim, who said that when she left the club, having become separated from her group, Wijethunga led her out to a nearby alleyway off Park End Street.

It was here, she said, that he raped her while other revellers passed by.

She told jurors: “I felt really scared and I remember him being silent."

The trial continues.