THE former captain of a Hampshire rugby team, who is accused of rape and indecent assault, says he is innocent.

David Ewen, 49, who once served in the police in Manchester, yesterday refuted allegations that he had violated a woman when he spent the night with her at her home in New Milton.

He told Southampton Crown Court that everything that happened between them was “always 100 per cent consensual” and he had never made her feel uncomfortable.

When asked what his re-action was when the allegations were first put to him, he replied: “I was numb. I was so shocked.”

Jurors have been told Ewen was presently serving a prison sentence for an unrelated case of assault. He joined the police in 1978 when he was 18 but had left the force by the time he moved south.

The woman has told the court how she met Ewen at a bar after he had been playing in a match for New Milton. After an evening out, they went to bed where they kissed and cuddled before he suddenly “flipped” her over, pinned her face down on the bed and raped her.

Ewen, of Brownsea Close, New Milton, denies rape and indecent assault.

Proceeding.