A MAN accused of raping and beating a woman leaving her needing surgery maintains his innocence.

Luke West says he is “100 per cent” the wrong man in the dock, a court heard.

The 29-year-old is accused of rape and grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent against a 40-year-old woman found bloody and naked following an incident in Bournemouth’s Lower Gardens on November 13.

West, of Warren Avenue in Southampton, denies all charges against him and claims to have fought with the woman’s actual attacker.

Summing up at Winchester Crown Court, defence barrister Paul Walker said: “Why is he [West] maintaining his plea of not guilty? Why is he saying to 12 people he does not want to plead guilty to something he has not done? This is something worth considering.”

The jury has now heard all evidence and Judge Keith Cutler has begun summing up the trial.

As previously reported, the jury heard how when West was arrested in connection with the rape he exclaimed: “What have I done? Wow. No, definitely not. What? You’re kidding me.”

When asked before if he was the wrong man in the dock, West responded “100 per cent”.

West says he remained silent during police interviews because he was following advice from his legal team.

Yet he later claimed he went out for a walk and fought with a man who he says attacked the victim.

When asked in court why he had not given this information during his interviews, West said: “I can’t answer.

“I have made mistakes.”

Earlier in the case, the prosecution said the woman thought she was going to die when she was suffocated and raped as she walked to work through the gardens. She suffered bruising and cuts to her face, with injuries to her jaw and a fractured eye socket, the court heard.

Robert Bryan, prosecuting, said: “She was groaning in pain but apart from that couldn’t communicate with anyone.”

He said the woman was found by a colleague who was searching for her.

A search of the hotel room where West was staying produced a pair of jeans and a jacket stained with blood whose DNA matched the victim, the prosecution said.

A forensic scientist said DNA on swabs taken from the victim was a billion times more likely to belong to West than any other male.

The trial continues.