A CONVICTED rapist accused of carrying out a string of sex attacks appeared to wipe away tears as he told a court “I have never raped anyone”.

Saulius Zilinskas is accused of raping a woman in East London on January 14, 2005, and attempting to rape two women, and sexually assaulting another, in Laindon on February 21, 2015.

Basildon Crown Court heard details of his conviction for raping a 16-year-old in Lithuania in 2003, as Zilinskas took to the stand.

Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, said the 41-year-old had dragged the girl into a car and attacked her, before fleeing the country.

He was extradited from the UK and jailed in 2006, but only after allegedly raping a 35-year-old woman three times in a car and at a property in East London in 2005.

Zilinskas was jailed for six-and-a-half years in his home country, later reduced to five years on appeal.

Zilinskas told the court he was only convicted because Lithuanian police had “manipulated facts” and key witnesses had lied.

Speaking through an interpreter, Zilinskas said: “Nothing happened in Lithuania, in the same way nothing happened here.”

Officers from the Metropolitan Police interviewed Zilinskas in prison in 2007, but he claimed the sex was consensual and no further action was taken. He later returned to the UK and moved to Great Oxcroft, in Laindon. He denies the rapes and carrying out three further sex attacks in or near the Co-op, in Laindon High Road.

Zilinskas told the court the first incident, a sexual assault inside the shop, was accidental - but he denied ever seeing a 27-year-old woman or a 16-year-old girl he is accused of trying to rape.

He said: “I didn’t do anything, not on that evening, not on any other evening. I never raped anyone in my life and I never had thoughts like that in my life.”

Zilinskas told the court that he had gone out to buy a bottle of vodka to make cocktails for his wife and her sister but had been in a “conflict” with two men who asked him where they could find a “disco with girls.”

Zilinskas removed his glasses and appeared to wipe away tears as he told how one of the men assaulted him and tried to force him to go to his car while the other man, who was wearing glasses, ran off “to vomit or do a number two.”

He told the court he eventually escaped and hid in a car park. He said he was at home when the attempted rapes took place, 20 minutes apart.

When questioned on his internet search history, which included numerous searches such as “daddy rapes daughter”, he told the court his wife is a hairdresser and clients visiting their home may have had access to his computer.

The trial continues.