Tweed denies girl treated like 'object'

Tweed, the widower of Big Brother star Jade Goody, denied he was simply using the woman, who was just 19 at the time, for sex, saying he thought there was "a strong mutual attraction" between them.

But he told the jury trying him for rape that he had no idea another man was in the room spying on them until his friend Anthony Davis knelt on the bed and joined in .

Tweed and Davis, 26, both deny raping the teenager at Tweed's east London home in the early hours of September 4 last year.

Under cross-examination by Linda Strudwick, for the prosecution, Tweed denied he was using the woman, now a 20-year-old student from Hertfordshire, "like a sex object".

He also denied he "targeted the shyest, prettiest girl and got her in to a darkened room together" with Davis in an "agreed plan" for sex. "I didn't know he was there until he got on the bed," Tweed said.

He said he stopped having sex and left the room.

Asked if he would have found it "creepy" or odd if he had known Davis was watching him, Tweed insisted he would not have been angry.

"I wouldn't really have been cross, I just wouldn't have liked it.," he said.

Asked how he did not see Tweed when he would have been facing Davis and just a metre away from where he was stood, Tweed said he was kissing the woman "all the time".

Tweed also denied he changed his version of events since making his defence case statement last month in a bid to help Davis.

Asked about the discrepancies between his statement and his evidence, Tweed said his solicitor "wrote what he thought best and I signed it".

The victim has told the jury she was "frozen with fear" and went into "complete lockdown" when Davis joined Tweed on the bed and they both raped her. Tweed insists the sex was consensual.

Tweed, who married Big Brother star Goody, 27, shortly before she died of cancer, denies two counts of rape.

Estate agent Davis, of Stradbroke Drive, Chigwell, Essex, denies one count of rape.

The trial continues on Thursday.