A 27-year-old Somerset man parted a teenaged student's legs, grabbed her bottom and shouted "University girls like to be raped" at a freshers' party, a jury was told today.

Christopher Green of Elmsleigh Road, Weston Super Mare is on trial at Gloucester Crown Court charged with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old fellow student at the University of Gloucestershire halls of residence at Hardwicke Campus, St Pauls Road, Cheltenham.

He is alleged to have sexually touched the teenager during a drinks party in a student flat at the beginning of term on September 13, last year.

His alleged victim, who was 18 at the time, ran back to her room, locked the door and contacted university security, who in turn, contacted the police, the court was told.

Said the alleged victim from the witness stand: "We were having a get-together in one of the kitchens before the others were off clubbing and Christopher Green, who I had not met before started to make suggestive remarks to me.

"I sat on a table - I was wearing pyjama shorts and a top because I wasn't going out with them - and I was accidentally sitting on his phone.

"He pulled my legs apart and said that he needed to get between my legs."

She told the jury of eight women and four men that the defendant grabbed her bottom on more than one occasion, made increasingly sexually explicit remarks and then she heard the word "rape."

"I felt really uncomfortable as they were laughing and making remarks about my bottom," she said in answer to questions from prosecuting barrister Giles Nelson.

"After he grabbed my bottom on one occasion he said 'it's not my fault but university girls like to be raped"

"I was scared that the situation might get worse - Chris was drunk at the time - so I went back to my room, locked my door and called university security, who contacted the police."

The jury were then shown a photograph of bruising on the alleged victim's upper thigh from when Green is said to have grabbed her.

In cross-examination by defending barrister Jenny Tallentyre she admitted that she had changed into her pyjamas which had very short shorts.

"Did you stroke his arm at any stage?" asked the barrister.

"I touched his arm to look at his tattoos," replied the witness.

The barrister then suggested that she had been flirtatious with the defendant and had given him a hug before he went out clubbing.

She denied that had taken place.

"I am not a huggy sort of person," she said. "I don't even hug my best friends."

The trial continues.