A teenager accused of raping of a young girl told police he was "too stoned and suicidal” to have carried out the attack, a jury was told.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard how the girl said the alleged rape, one of a string of sex offences which were said to have taken place at a house in Harlow between April 2009 and September 2011, made her feel like the defendant’s “puppet on a string".

The girl, who was under 16 at the time, claimed she recorded part of what Cameron Smith said during one alleged attack.

But Smith, 18, of Broadley Terrace in Waltham Abbey, denies all charges, claiming in police interviews the voice on the recording was not his.

The court was told he said: "No, it ain't me. I can tell from the voice. I don't have a clue who it is. It’s not me."

"One of my ex's lost a kid. I was a bit suicidal and didn't want to go f***ing anyone."

Smith denies nine offences against the same girl - five rapes, two sexual assaults, one assault by penetration and one of inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity.

The court was told that during a series of police interviews following Smith's arrest, he told them: "I was too stoned to think about having sex. It’s abusing women, it’s wrong. Sex wasn't top of my mind after one of my ex's had a miscarriage."

Diana Pigot, prosecuting, said: "This case concerns the sexual abuse, including rape, by Smith of a young girl who described herself as being 'like his puppet on a string'.

"On September 21 2011, she told him she didn't want things like that to happen and she told him to stop on a number of occasions.”

Earlier a friend of the victim named Smith as the man on the mobile phone recording.
The case continues.