Mubeen Abdul Sharif, 27, is on trial before the Dunedin District Court and yesterday said he was shocked when the woman raised the allegations a couple of days after the episode.
He told the jury he stopped having sex with the complainant when she told him to, but accepted he may not have heard an earlier request to cease.
The defendant, facing two counts of rape from the October 2022 incident, later posted on Snapchat that he wanted to "tell the truth".
"I’m turning myself in guys. I have raped [the complainant]," he wrote.
But yesterday, he said he was simply repeating the allegation in the woman’s words and only made the concession because she was "begging" him.
"I felt guilty when she told me," Sharif told police.
"I had so much alcohol on that night [of posting the message] that it just ate me up."
Crown prosecutor Craig Power said that was the "spin" the defendant put on his actions retrospectively, an assertion he denied.
Earlier this week, the complainant told the court the pair’s intimacy had begun consensually but that the man had continued despite voicing her discomfort and her repeated requests for him to stop.
She said she opened the curtains but Sharif abruptly closed them again.
He allegedly dragged her towards him by the ankles and resumed the violation.
Sharif denied there was any second episode.
"Did you think at any time she was not consenting to what was going on?" counsel Marc Corlett KC asked.
"No," Sharif said.
"Did you get a sense there was anything wrong?"
"No. Not until two days after."
During a video call, the woman accused him of raping her.
"I was surprised," Sharif said. "In my mind I was thinking ‘this ain’t true’."
The defendant suggested it was the woman’s flatmate — a law student — who had instigated the rape complaint.
She gave evidence yesterday that the complainant had messaged her immediately after the incident that she was "traumatised".
The flatmate, whose name was suppressed, said she found them sitting apart in the bedroom.
"There was an awkward silence in the room and they weren’t talking to each other, they weren’t making eye contact," she said.
Sharif denied there was any tension and said the flatmate was "giggling" and joking about the smell in the room.
He only left hurriedly because he had to catch a flight back to Auckland, he said.
Mr Power accused Sharif of "making things up as you go along" in the witness box.
The defendant denied that, and stressed the accusations of him forcing himself on the woman were "bulls... ".
"I did not push her at all, at all. I don’t use force against women ... I don’t even think about that," he earlier told police.
Sharif said he remained in contact with the complainant for weeks after the bedroom incident, buying her flowers and a necklace to celebrate her graduation as well as paying for rent and food.
"I bought her gifts ... I spoiled her like crazy," he said.
"From my side, I feel like I got f..... over, like she wanted just to destroy my career."
Both Crown and defence will give closing addresses today before Judge Michael Turner sums up the case.
