The jury has retired in the trial of a Colchester man who has been accused of raping an Ipswich woman he met on a dating site. 

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Monday was Matthew Edgerton, 31, who is of De Grey Road in Colchester.

He denies raping the alleged victim back in March.

The court has heard that the woman had met Edgerton on a dating website and after a couple of weeks of conversation he came to see her.

They went back to her flat and later had consensual sex.

The next day, the woman arranged for a friend to come over and she went out with Edgerton to buy food and drinks.

The friend arrived at about 6pm and everyone got on very well, the court was told.

However, the alleged victim said to police there was the occasional red flag because one minute Edgerton would appear to be fine and then the next minute really drunk.

She added that he got “over familiar” with her friend at some points during the evening

Eventually Edgerton fell asleep on the sofa and at 2am the friend left.

Edgerton and the alleged victim began having sex and at that point it was consensual.

However, Edgerton had then allegedly started to strangle the woman and  she said "no, stop" and tried to push him away, but he had ignored her protests and pinned her down.

He allegedly told her "tell me you love me" and “if you hurt me then I’m going to hurt you and I’m going to hurt your loved ones”.

She told her friend about the alleged incident the next month before receiving some messages from the defendant.

Edgerton was arrested and answered "no comment" to questions.

The jury will return to Ipswich Crown Court on Tuesday to continue its deliberations.