A MAN accused of raping a 14-year-old girl told a jury he did not recognise the child in her school uniform.

Farhaad Ali said the teenager claimed to be 19 and was wearing eyeliner, powder and lipstick when he met her.

Ali, 24, of Wheatlands Drive, Manningham, Bradford, denies raping the girl in his bedroom in August, 2013.

She says he pinned her down on his bed, covered her mouth and forced her to have sex with him.

Bradford Crown Court has been told that she was reported missing from home in her summer holiday after Ali, then aged 22, drove her to his home late at night.

A police safeguarding officer became concerned about what had happened to her during the period she was missing.

Her clothing was sent for analysis and DNA evidence on her knickers matched that of the defendant.

Ali told the court today he spoke to the girl for up to three hours the first time they chatted on the phone.

She told him she was pretty, lived in Bradford and was aged 19.

He was single at the time and she "ticked the right boxes."

When they met for the first time, a few days later, she asked him for a cigarette. She was wearing jeans and a top, 'English'-style clothes, and make-up.

"She told me she was 19 and I did not doubt it," he said.

She followed him upstairs at his house when he called there to use the toilet. She was happy to go into his room and they kissed and had consensual sex.

His mother was in the bedroom next door and the walls were thin, he said.

He had not pinned the girl down, covered her mouth or used any force on her at all.

"I am a small guy who would never be able to do that. She had the freewill to leave the house at any time," he said.

When the police showed him a photo of the girl in her school uniform, he did not recognise her.

"I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. I was gutted. I was scared," he said.

The trial continues.