A TEENAGER insisted the young woman accusing him of being part of a duo who raped her on a train smiled and laughed as she repeatedly performed sex acts on a train.

The 17-year-old boy said he met the alleged victim when he boarded a c2c train at Southend with his 17-year-old codefendant and two friends.

He denied calling the alleged victim a "slag" and claimed he was "shocked" when she "implied" she had had sex with her boyfriend earlier that day as they chatted.

Giving evidence at his trial today, he said his alleged accomplice asked her for a kiss and she complied before he did the same and a short while later he asked her for oral sex.

He told the jury at Basildon Crown Court: "I asked her and I was surprised. She was all smiles and said yes."

He said she willingly performed oral sex on him and his codefendant in several carriages of the train and at no point was she threatened or pressured into doing so.

Shortly before the train pulled into Grays station and he was arrested, a row broke out and he slapped the alleged victim across the face before spraying her with a fire extinguisher.

He said: "I'm disgusted by my actions after that, spraying her with the fire extinguisher, and I have pleaded guilty to that.

"There is nothing I can say to justify my actions. If I had not done that I would not be in this situation."

On cross examination by Christine Agnew, prosecuting counsel, the defendant denied changing his evidence to make it "fit" with what his codefendant had said the previous day because they had "pestered" the alleged victim into performing oral sex on them.

He added: "Why would someone smile and laugh if they were being raped?"

The defendant admits one count of common assault on November 4 last year.

Both youths, who live in Grays, deny raping and sexually touching the young woman without consent on the same day.

The trial continues.