An aristocrat accused of raping a 16-year-old girl as she slept told police she was part of a group of youngsters who offered him sex in exchange for cigarettes.

James Murray, the 42-year-old son of the Earl of Mansfield, said he had refused to have sexual feelings for the girl when she was only 15 years old, because he knew it was wrong.

In an interview with detectives that was read to the jury at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, he said he let the youngsters into his home – even though they would steal – and eventually allowed the teenage girl, who later accused him of rape, move in to his Oxford home with her own key.

He told police one of the girl’s friends had offered sex in exchange for alcohol or cigarettes.

Murray, who denies rape, claimed he and the complainant developed a sexual relationship, including around half a dozen incidents, after she made “suggestive” sexual noises down the phone.

The girl told officers she awoke on a leopard print inflatable mattress in Murray’s spare room with her trousers around her knees and him lying next to her naked, on June 26, 2010.

He told her he had had sex with her as she slept but the condom had split and she needed to take the morning-after pill.

In a further police interview, he said the teenager’s friends demanded money from him, using the incident as “leverage”, the jury heard.

Murray, now of Logie House, Logie Drive, Logiealmond, Perth told officers he felt he and the girl were in a “relationship” but they did not consider each other boyfriend and girlfriend and claimed one of his friends warned him away from her.

The trial continues.