A jury is due to start hearing the trial today of an award-winning journalist accused of sex offences.

Former deputy news editor of the Sunday Telegraph Ben Leapman, who helped to expose the scandal of MPs fiddling their expenses, denies three charges of raping a woman.

A jury of seven women and five men will start hearing the case today.

The Cambridge-educated 43-year-old, formerly of High Street, Eynsford, near Dartford, now of Aldebert Terrace, South Lambeth, south west London, battled for four years to get House of Commons members to come clean on their spending.

He is on conditional bail.