A drunken woman was allegedly raped as she lay in a ditch after wandering off from friends following a night out in Canterbury, a court heard.

The 21-year-old student at Kent University had little recollection of events on October 9, 2007, and called the police when she got home about 4am to report she had been mugged.

While officers were speaking to her, she began telling them about a boy being on top of her and it became clear something more had happened.

As officers taped off a ditch at the university campus, another student spoke to them saying he had comforted the girl when he found her in the ditch crying.

That student, Michael Ainsworth, 20, of Church Lane, Chalden, Surrey, then told police he’d had sex with the woman at her instigation saying he would not have done so against her will.

He was arrested and is on trial at Canterbury Crown Court where he denies rape.

Christopher May, prosecuting, said the victim had far too much to drink that night - scientists estimated her alcohol blood level at 1am was three times over the drink drive limit.

She’d gone to The Works nightclub for an Ann Summers night with friends having drunk vodka and red wine before going and continued drinking at the club. At one stage she split her skirt and they eventually had to leave because of her state.

They got back to the campus where the woman was emotional and crying and ringing her boyfriend but not making any sense.

She ended up wandering off barefooted alone and her friends looked for her but couldn’t find her.

“She didn’t get far because she fell into a ditch,” said Mr May.

Ainsworth was living at Nickle Court on campus and was going home from a friend’s where he’d spent the evening.

“He heard her making a noise in the ditch and the Crown say he took advantage of her state to have sex with her,” said Mr May.

The woman eventually got home about 4am. As she’d left her shoes and housekeys at her friend’s earlier, she had to wake her housemates to let her in.

She then called the police to report being mugged and the jury were played a recording of the call.

The woman couldn’t recall much but remembered meeting a boy she didn’t know, a first year student.

Police taped off a drainage ditch at the back of Densted Court. Ainsworth told an officer he had spoken to a girl who said her boyfriend had chucked her and he tried to help her in the ditch.

He said she was drunk and making calls to her boyfriend and she said she had been raped but didn’t say when. He said he comforted her for about two hours until she said she was going home.

He then said he needed to tell the police something else and said he had sex with her because she had begged him to.

When she told him to stop, he did then she wanted him to do it again and they had sex three times.

He’d said it would be better to have sex either at his place or hers but she said they would do it there. He did not go against her will.

“She did not consent to sex that night with this boy she didn’t know,” said Mr May. “She had got herself in a real state by her own drinking and being then vulnerable as she was, she did not consent and did not have the capacity to consent to sexual intercourse.”

The trial continues.