A MILLIONAIRE tycoon accused of attempted rape has detailed his playboy lifestyle of group sex and cocaine.

David Atherton, a leading Greater Manchester businessmen, told how he took seven grams of the drug every week.

The 51-year-old, who was one of Britain's first dot-com tycoons, told a jury how he regularly attended sex parties in Manchester.

His alleged victim claims that Atherton sexually assaulted her then attempted to rape her in the kitchen of his £1.5m mansion on Victoria Road in Heaton, Bolton. She then claims he threatened to drown her in the house's swimming pool.

But Atherton told the jury the woman had a 'rape fantasy' and fabricated the attack to get access to his vast wealth.

Atherton, who sold his company Dabs.Com for millions to British Telecom in 2006, denies attempted rape, two sex assaults, making a threat to kill and false imprisonment.

He said: "I was talking to her about rough sex. I said that her preference was for the sex to be rough. She said: `I like to be raped'.

"She meant that she would chase and catch, then have sex with the man who she was with. I have never expressed a view that women like to be raped."

Atherton told the court of 'uninhibited sexual activity' with the woman and others, both men and women, and how he took part in group sex sessions.

He said he would constantly party and lived the high life.

Referring to the woman, Atherton said the parties led to sexual contact with other people.

He added: "Around 20 to 30 sexual encounters with other people . . . I was always present.

"We had group sex with the same person more than once."

Atherton said he paid the woman around £500 every time they had sex because she would say that she needed money to pay household bills.

Leeds Crown Court heard how the woman offered him sex for money 'at least 300 times'.

Asked by his defence counsel Yvonne Coen QC whether he had ever had sexual contact with a woman against her wishes, Atherton replied: "Never in my life."

He went on to detail the events of August 17 last year and denied attempting to rape her or threatening to kill her.

He said he had called her to his home to have sex. As they began to get intimate, he said she got up and ran away.

Atherton said that he told her that he was 'going to do' her in the swimming pool.

He said he meant that he intended to have sex with her in the Jacuzzi.

He said: "I think that she misinterpreted my words. Why on earth would I have wanted to kill her?"

The jury was told of Atherton's remarkable business success story.

He said he began working as a shelf-stacker for Tesco then became a clerk for the Inland Revenue. He became interested in personal computers in the 80s and worked for the BBC.

He moved to Bolton from London and formed Dabs Press, a computer book publishing business with a business partner. Atherton told how he launched the business from a flat above a newsagents in Bolton.

The company became catalogue firm Dabs Direct in 1990, then Dabs.com, an online computer retailer in 1999.

In 1999, the company had a turnover of £25m and at the time he sold it, sales were £150m and the firm was making an annual profit of £5m.