An Army recruit couldn't have consented to sex with a corporal because she was a lesbian and had been very drunk, a court was told.

David Kear (32), from Bulford, Wilts, denies charges of raping and indecently assaulting her at the Army Training Regiment's base, Sir John Moore Barracks, Winchester.

Susan Evans, prosecuting, told the city's Crown Court that the 26-year-old victim had been celebrating, drinking Bacardi and Coke for three hours with colleagues at the Chimneys pub in Weeke-since closed down-at the end of 12 weeks' basic training in April, 2003.

The woman told the court how, when they returned by taxi just before midnight, Kear offered to escort her back to barracks and, on the way, kicked open the door of an empty portable classroom, pulled her in and attacked her.

"He grabbed me by my right wrist and dragged me into the room," she said. "I tried to push him away. I just didn't know how to get away from him."

The woman told the court that Kear, together with many of her fellow recruits, had been aware that she was a lesbian and she confirmed that she had been drunk at the time: "I was very worse for wear," she said.

She told the jury her next memory was of waking the following morning, fully clothed and on the floor in her barracks. After breakfast, she raised the alarm and Kear was suspended from duty that afternoon.

Proceeding