Nigel Evans told police a ex Westminster worker who accused him of sexual assault was "Machiavellian" and at the "centre of the web" of a plot against him, his trial heard. He denies all charges against him.
Former deputy speaker Nigel Evans told detectives he was "staggered" at being arrested and sat in a police interview room accused of rape, Preston Crown Court heard today.
Following his arrest on May 4 last year, five weeks after the alleged sexual assault, Evans admitted having sex with the man accusing him of rape, telling officers: "Did I have sexual contact with him, the answer is yes. Was it non-consensual, the answer is no."
The 56-year-old told police: "We are not talking about a wilting flower here."
The MP for Ribble Valley is said to have raped the man, then aged 22, following a dinner party at his home in Pendleton, Lancashire in March 2013.
"At what stage he thought what was going to happen was not consensual, I'm a bit mystified," Evans told officers. "Had he not wished to have any sexual contact with me he could have said so which he never did."
"He said, 'Should I follow you in?' And he did. He took his own clothes off. I did not lead him in or push him in or any of that," Evans continued.
"As far as I was concerned everything that occurred was consensual," Evans added. "I'm somewhat staggered by the allegations he is now making."
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