A driver has denied sexually assaulting and trying to kidnap a doctor and told a jury she was drunk and struggling to stand up.

Marian Drute said he followed the woman down Fore Street in Exeter late at night because he could see she was wobbling and feared she would hurt herself by bumping into scaffolding.

He told Exeter Crown Court that he had not asked her for sex, groped her under her dress, or tried to manhandle her into his Volvo car.

He said he had just won £900 on high stakes slot machines in an amusement arcade and was planning to go to a night club when the incident happened.

Drute, aged 25, of Alphington Street, Exeter, denied assault by penetration and attempted kidnap.

The doctor has told the court how she was walking down Fore Street when she was followed by Drute who engaged her in conversation and asked to have sex.

She described how he offered to take her to a van elsewhere in the city and 'give her a good time' but she resisted, broke free and walked away.

She said he put his hand on her breast and under her skirt as she resisted his attempts to get her into the back seat of his car.

A passing cyclist saw a woman clinging to scaffolding as a man tried to drag her into a car and a resident living opposite also saw the incident, noted the number of Drute's Volvo car, and called the police.

The prosecution say CCTV shows Drute see a lone woman walk past, wait a second or so, then follow her before accosting her under scaffolding opposite the McColls shop.

Drute said he moved to Exeter from Romania in 2015 with his girlfriend and was working for a firm which delivers and picks up portable toilets at the time of this incident in April this year.

He told the jury he had just won £900 on machines at the Cashino arcade and was planning to take a picture of his receipt to send to a friend but the battery of his phone ran out.

He said as he was standing outside the arcade the woman walked past and he followed her because he could see she was unsteady on her feet.

He said she started the conversation by asking if he was Romanian and he realised she was drunk. At one point she fell against him and on another she clung onto the scaffolding to stay upright.

He said he opened the door of his car to fetch a lighter from inside but had not tried to bundle her in.

He said: "I did not touch her breasts deliberately. I did not kiss her on the mouth or push her back into the shadows. She was drunk and felt like doing other things.

"I did not try to force her into may car. There were two police cars just up the road and she could have called out to them at any time. I did not sexually assault her.

"I did not try to take her away. I would not kidnap a [woman's age] woman when my girlfriend is 21."