Rape case woman denies putting on `show' Actor denies he lived with rape case woman `had lived with actor' 1/54point

In a dramatic exchange across a courtroom yesterday the comic actor Craig Charles shouted toward the women accusing him of rape and indecent assaults that he had never lived with her.

On day two of the trial at Southwark Crown Court, south London, the court was told that the woman, a former "exotic dancer" claimed to have once lived with the actor.

Mr Charles, aged 30, star of the Sci-fi television series Red Dwarf is accused of rape and four other indecent assault charges along with Jack Peploe, 36, a company director.

Both the men have pleaded not guilty.

Cross-examining the woman on behalf of Mr Charles, Stephen Solley QC accused her of "putting on a vulgar sexual show" in July last year when she claimed she was raped and assaulted in her south London councilflat by Mr Charles, Mr Peploe and another unidentified man named in court as Roger who has avoided arrest.

Mr Solley said that for years the woman had been "a performer, a dancer, dancing almost exclusively for men - and the nature of your dancing was exotic". The woman said she had been a dancer but was now a student. She denied she had put on "a show" for the men in her flat.

During his cross-examination,Mr Solley told the court the woman had described the third man to the police as someone who "looked like Michael Portillo", the Conservative MP and Cabinet Minister .

During questioning he said she had found out that Mr Charles was intending to get married. "You were gutted - and couldn't let him go," Mr Solley said. The woman denied this was true

Mr Solley, accusing the woman of fantasising the alleged rape and assault, suggested to her that the idea for claiming she was sexually assaulted with an olive oil bottle came from an article in the adult magazine Forum, found at her flat.

The woman alleges Mr Charles and Mr Peploe pushed a bottle, a pen and an orange inside her vagina during the assaults.

The Forum article, read out in court by Mr Solley, graphically described an olive oil bottle being used as vaginal stimulation.

Mr Solley said: "You were going back to the old ways."

The woman denied she had ever used an olive oil bottle when she was an exotic dancer. She told the jury: "Craig is into these kinds of things," and accused him of being "a very evil person".

Mr Solley questioned her claims to have lived with Mr Charles during a part of their former relationship.

The woman answered: "Yes I did live with Craig Charles."

Mr Charles shouted from the dock: "No you did not."

The woman shouted back at him saying: "I cooked your food, I washed your clothes, I tidied up - I did live with you."

Mr Solley said that when the men first arrived at the woman's flat she had said to Mr Charles: "This white woman's really got her hooks into you," but she denied the remarks.

Turning to Mr Charles in the dock, she said: "I'm not in love with him and he knows that."

She denied a suggestion by Mr Solley that she had dressed up for the men in her flat wearing "tight white shorts, a skimpy top, high heels, white stockings and a see through red wrap".

Mr Solley asked her: "You have been telling a number of lies to this jury?"

The woman said this was not true, but the barrister then suggested: "But you have deliberately set out to tell a completely false story, to destroy Craig Charles."

She denied this.

However, Mr Solley went on: "What you have told this jury you know in your heart is a travesty of the truth."

The case was adjourned until today.