A MAN has denied sexually assaulting a woman, claiming it was an ‘accident’ and that he fell on her.

David Howe, of Challenor Close, Abingdon, was at Oxford Crown Court on Wednesday to answer sexual assault charges against the woman who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He is alleged to have forced himself upon her and groped her chest on August 1 last year.

The jury of five men and seven women heard an interview between Howe and police officer Christopher Bennett after he was arrested on the same day.

Howe told the officer at Abingdon Police Station that he had simply fallen on to her after a heavy drinking session.

He said: “As I was leaving I went over and I did land on her.

“And I am on top of her and I was trying to get off and she is panicking and is saying ‘what are you doing’ and she said stop.

“I found it hard to get up because I have bad knees and then she is saying ‘get off, get off,’ and says she is going to scream and then I get up and say sorry.”

The court heard that Howe had drank between six and seven pints in the hours before the incident.

He described it as ‘embarrassing’ and said he apologised to the complainant profusely afterwards.

The complainant, meanwhile, said that she was ‘panicking’ and told officers: “He was doing a bonking motion as if he was trying to have sex with me.”

The trial continues.