A former British international ice dancer has appeared in court accused of raping a young girl more than 20 years ago.

Philip Askew, who won gold at the 1997 British Figure Skating Championships, has denied raping the schoolgirl who was under the age of 16 at the time.

The jury at Reading Crown Court heard this week that the 44-year-old, who was 21 at the time, worked as an ice dance coach in both Bracknell and Slough.

The victim, now in her thirties, told the police in 2015 that Askew drove her in his black Mazda MX3 to the YMCA in Slough, where he raped her in his room.

She said: “I do not know how we got from having a normal conversation to having an interaction of a sexual nature.

“I told him that I didn’t want to do anything but he was trying to reassure me that it was okay.

“It was not something that I wanted.

“I did not think that I was going to get hurt but he implied that I had wanted this to happen.

“He just got on top of me. He was really heavy and there was no way that I could get away.”

The jury heard that Askew told the victim in the mid-nineties that she should not tell anyone what had happened but when her parents found out she was ‘ashamed’.

She said: “He told me afterwards that I must not tell anyone about what happened because he would get into trouble.

“I wrote about what happened in my diary and my parents found it and read it.

“I felt ashamed about it and I thought that it was my fault.”

Askew, now of Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire, denies the single charge of rape and the trial continues.

'He just got on top of me. He was really heavy and there was no way that I could get away'