A barber has told a jury he was accused of rape by a woman because she was “fed up” with him not earning enough money.
Dana Mohammed, 32, met the woman on Tinder and would often go to her address where he would sleep on the sofa, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
He said their early exchanges via the app included talking about “normal things” before they started seeing each other more often.
Speaking through a Kurdish interpreter, Mohammed said: “For example, she asked me and we talked about, like, ‘are you going to take advantage of me, are you going to use me for one night – is it a one-night stand?’
“We talked about, ‘are you going to use me to get a visa?’
“Things like that.”
The prosecution allege Mohammed, who previously worked for Mo Barber in Colchester city centre, raped her before forcing his way into her address later that day and assaulting her.
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Under cross-examination from James Doyle, defending, Mohammed said things became fractious between the two because he had lost his job and would come into her flat late at night.
On the day after the alleged incident, the woman sent Mohammed a text which read: “I’m not going to respect someone who raped me.”
When he was asked what he thought the woman meant by the text, Mohammed, who is from Iraq and came to the UK in 2017 before applying for political asylum, said: “She was trying to put pressure on me to go out for work and make money – it was like she was joking with me.”
He continued: “She also sent me other messages and they meant to say like I was cheap, I was broke, things like that.”
He added: “I was still thinking at that time that she is joking with me – like she was winding me up.
“I think she was fed up with me – I think that is what she was trying to say to me.”
Mohammed, of Carter Lane, Mansfield, also said he did not have any sexual contact with the woman on the evening of the alleged rape.
He denies rape, actual bodily harm, and intentional strangulation.
The trial continues.
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