A man from Edgware raped his friend's girlfriend as his pal lay sleeping next to her, a court heard this week Armando Domingos, 23, of Fairmead Crescent, is alleged to have crept into the couple's bedroom and climbed on top of the teenager as she slept in bed next to her boyfriend.

Domingos had been invited to stay on the sofa bed in the living room of the couple's home in Stratford, east London, after they had been on a night out together on June 8 this year, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Sarah Lawson, prosecuting, told the court: "In the early hours the girl awoke to find herself being conscious of the fact someone was trying to have sex with her.

"At first she couldn't work out what was going on - she thought it must be her boyfriend. She turned around and it was in fact this defendant."

Ms Lawson said Domingos got out of bed and the girl's boyfriend woke up to see what was going on.

The victim, who was 17 at the time of the alleged incident, left the flat after an argument and reported the incident to police, the court heard.

When Domingos was later arrested and interviewed, he told officers he had consensual sex with the girl.

Miss Lawson said: "He said that he had gone into their bedroom in the early hours of the morning to get a phone charger for his mobile phone.

"He said she had pulled him over to where she was lying naked on the bed and they had then started to have sex.

"The prosecution say in this case, firstly that she was not consenting to what was happening.

"She apparently was asleep at the time any sexual activity took place and this defendant could not have reasonably held the belief that she was consenting because she didn't even know he was in the bed."

Domingos denies rape on June 9 this year. The trial continues.