RAPE ACCUSED HAD FIGHT WITH MAN IN ALLEY, COURT TOLD
A former teacher and his friend fought with a 19-year-old man in an alley after he accused them of rape, a court has heard.George Ellis, 41, and Mark Lett, 43, deny raping the man after meeting him after a night out in Brighton, East Sussex, in December 2024.
Ellis, of Esher, Surrey, said the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, punched him, bit his shoulder and gouged his eye.
On Tuesday at Lewes Crown Court, he said the sexual encounter between the three men had been consensual.
The former PE teacher said he remained clothed throughout the few minutes from meeting the man at a bus stop to fighting him in a basement stairwell at about 03:30 GMT on 21 December 2024.
"He started struggling, he was tense and very aggressive," Ellis told the court.
The man tried to "claw" his face, adding: "He just kept shouting 'rape'".
The man punched Ellis in the face and bit his shoulder, so he tried to punch his ribs and "charged" him into a wall, he said.
"I got my fingers onto his hand that was in my eye," Ellis told jurors.
"When I got his hands off, I was able to punch him in the face, and I was able to break free." Ellis told the court that he did not seek medical help for his eye because he was embarrassed that he had been fighting.
