The defendant in a rape trial said he spurned the alleged victim shortly before the date he is accused of sexually assaulting her.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied the charge of serious sexual assault which allegedly happened on January 23, 2003.

The woman alleged the two engaged in an email flirtation and had consensual sex in early January 2003 and that she was violently raped by him on January 23, 2003. She made a formal complaint three years after the event on April 12, 2006.

During the four day trial the eight man and four woman jury have heard that the two once worked together at a bank and maintained a close friendship once they left the company in 2002.

Yesterday, the defendant alleged that he and the complainant had a sexual relationship for 18 months while the worked together at the bank and maintained it until August 2002 — though the complainant denied having a sexual relationship other than the one occasion in January 2003.

He said they exchanged emails regularly to arrange a meet up time for sex.

He added that after receiving a security warning from the bank that words such as sex were being red flagged by the IT department the two spoke in code in order to arrange a time to meet for sex.

He added that it was only after their relationship, which he described as purely sexual, ended in August 2002 that things took a turn for the worse and alleged that she began to stalk him and his new girlfriend.

"She started calling me more and asking me to talk to her," the 42-year-old said.

"She asked people to tell my girl friend I was no good. She would drive by my house and my girlfriend had to file a complaint with the Police because [the complainant] ran her off the road.

"I told her if she didn't stop harassing me I would be forced to take legal action and I told her husband too."

He also told the Supreme Court that he had never been interviewed by Police about the serious sexual assault.

During cross examination by Crown counsel Robert Welling asked him about emails which were entered into the record by his lawyer Saul Froomkin, QC.

Mr. Welling suggested the defendant cherry picked emails between December 2002 and January 2003 to illustrate that the two had often discussed sexual acts but failed to include emails prior to the time period or emails before or after the alleged rape which could have shed more light on the situation.

The defendant denied cherry picking emails and stated that he had asked the complainant's boss for all the emails between them and the boss had supplied the package.

The trial resumes this morning.