A Suffolk man put his hand over a schoolgirl’s mouth while he allegedly raped her more than two decades ago when he was a teenager, a court has been told.

The alleged victim later told police she had been in “excruciating” pain and claimed that when she told Mark Cox he was hurting her he had put his hand over her mouth, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Matthew Sorel-Cameron, prosecuting, claimed that after the alleged rape Cox, who had been in his late teens, told the girl not to tell anyone about it and said that what happened was “their secret".

Cox, now aged 45, of Ridley Road, Bury St Edmunds, has denied indecently assaulting the alleged victim and raping her in the 1990s when he was a teenager.

After his arrest in January 2019, Cox claimed the allegations were “fabricated".

However, he did accept he had “momentarily” touched the alleged victim over her clothing, which he said was a “world away” from what she was claiming.

The trial continues.