A woman who has accused her ex-boyfriend of attempting to rape her and then actually raping her three weeks later has denied concocting the allegations.

The complainant frequently broke down in tears as she was cross-examined by the man’s lawyer at Supreme Court yesterday.

During her first day of evidence on Monday, she claimed the 37-year-old entered her home last year, stole $40 from her bag, sexually assaulted her and then injured her when she tried to snatch the money back.

Neither she nor the defendant can be identified for legal reasons.

The woman has further alleged that the man entered her house without permission during a second incident, on her birthday earlier this year. She said the man raped her after threatening her with a knife and robbed her of $500 cash before driving his car into her legs.

The man rejects all of these claims, as well as further charges that he sent intimidating letters to the woman while he was in Westgate on remand.

Under cross-examination yesterday from the man’s lawyer, Llewellyn Peniston, about her relationship with the man prior to the first alleged incident, she told how he stole $1065 from her by signing her cheques. Although she pressed charges against him over this, she said she withdrew them after he begged her to do so.

“All he had to do was ask for that money. He didn’t have to steal it,” she said.

The jury heard the woman testify that she gained a domestic violence protection order against the man prior to the first alleged incident, but called him “once or twice” after it was in place, after he contacted her. In answer to claims from Mr. Peniston that she actually made 30 calls to him, she replied that she did not recall.

Putting the defendant’s version of the first incident, Mr. Peniston claimed that the woman invited him to her home to pick up toys she had purchased for his child and attempted to kiss him when she opened her door, but he turned his head away. She denied this.

She also rejected suggestions that she told the man she heard he had a girlfriend, and that when he got up to leave she blocked his path — shouting at him that he was only using her for his money and punching him in his chest. “I was the one pushing him out of my house,” she told the court.

She agreed with Mr. Peniston that she had given the defendant several sums of money, but denied this was intended to buy his affection. When the lawyer suggested the man did not take off his clothes or have an erection during the incident, and had only gone to her house to pick up gifts, the woman sobbed: “He attempted to rape me.”

Mr. Peniston alleged that the man did not do so, to which she replied: “He raped me. I know what rape is. He raped me”.

Asked why she did not visit the hospital for checks until midnight of the following day, she said this was because the man did not penetrate her, she had showered after the incident and “I thought there was no need.” She denied Mr. Peniston’s suggestion that this was part of a process of framing the man.

In answer to further questions, she denied she invited the man to her home on the date of the second alleged incident because it was her birthday, and that she was lying about him having a knife. She agreed with Mr. Peniston that she did not try to escape either while the man was showering after the alleged rape or while he was in her bed drifting in and out of sleep.

“Can you tell is why you didn’t go out the door while the defendant was naked in the shower singing?” asked Mr. Peniston.

“I was too terrified to move,” she replied, adding that she never thought about escaping after this. The case continues.