ONE of two men accused of raping a woman in woods next to St Peter’s Way has told a jury that he left her after she rejected his kiss.

Giving evidence in his own defence at Bolton Crown Court, Krystian Bielon said the woman had been drinking and laughing with him, his co-accused Lukas Slusarczyk and Slusarczyk’s brother Piotr on the evening of April 2.

Bielon had earlier bought vodka and he claimed that it was the 29-year-old woman’s decision to drink it in woods at Crompton Lodges.

“I had the impression that she liked me and so I tried to kiss her,” said Polish born Bielon, speaking through an interpreter.

“She just patted me on the face and pushed me very gently away and told me to **** off,” said Bielon.

“I thought ‘she’s not very interested in me’.”

He denied that he was angered by the rebuff and added that he only stayed in the woods for a few more minutes, smoking a cigarette or a joint and having another drink of vodka.

Bielon told the jury: “Then I said to the guys ‘I need to go. I live with my mum — she’ll be mad at me’.”

He added that when he arrived home his mother asked him where he had been and told him off for being drunk.

“I didn’t tell her where I was — I just went upstairs and took a bath and went to sleep,” he said.

He denied prosecution claims that he and Lukas Slusarczyk hit her with a log and raped her.

The jury had previously heard how the woman was found by motorists lying between the first and second lanes of St Peter’s Way, covered in mud, abrasions and bruises.

Bielon said that she was unhurt when he left the woods to walk to his Cawdor Street, Farnworth, home.

Cross examining Bielon, Michael Maher, prosecuting asked him: “Why was it she (the woman) appeared to leave your friendly gathering and throw herself into oncoming traffic?”

“I don’t know,” replied 36-year-old Bielon. “I had already left.”

Following the alleged rape police issued an appeal for help in tracing the attackers.

Bielon said he was “shocked” when his cousin rang him to say he had seen his photograph on the internet and he went to see Slusarczyk.

“I went to see him and asked what had happened there,” said Bielon.

“He told me that they were drinking, they were laughing and then they (both brothers) had sex, but she agreed to that.

“I was shocked by the whole situation.

“I didn’t ask too many questions really - I just asked them to go to the police station with me.

“I went on my own when they said they did not want to go.”

Slusarczyk, aged 23, of no fixed address, contacted police a few days later.

Bielon and Slusarczyk deny raping the woman. No charges were brought against the third man, whom the woman says did not take part in the attack.

The trial continues.