A man accused of rape and prostitution offences used a popular search engine to look up graphic sexual images, a court heard.

Naeem Ahmed searched the word “rape” and “Asian prostitute” as well as watching a porn video depicting rape, prosecutors claimed.

Standing in Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday, the 25-year-old of Westminster Gardens, Barking, denied searching some of the terms but added: “I researched just to see what it was really all about.

“Every guy looks at porn.”

Ahmed, known as Ricky, went on to deny that he raped the teenager, claiming “No-one stopped her leaving the house.

“She had her phone on her and could easily have picked up the phone and dialled 999.

“She should have given it an attempt. If she feels she is being raped she could have given it an attempt and thought to myself ‘I’m being raped by these people’.

“There was no screaming and no shouting, nothing like that. If she doesn’t want to have sex she needs to indicate to someone that she doesn’t want to.”

Prosecutor Kate Bex claimed the victim had seen weapons, including a baseball bat and a hammer, in the room and was afraid of what might happen to her if she failed to escape.

“The victim made it crystal clear that she wasn’t consenting because she was sobbing,” she said. A claim denied by Ahmed, who said: “That’s not true. She wasn’t crying. This is all lies.”

It also emerged in court that Naeem had been earning a living by sub-letting rooms, including one with bunk beds in a hostel-style set up, at three properties across Barking and Dagenham.

Naeem Ahmed is accused, alongside four other men, of being part of a sex ring that engaged in child prostitution and rape.

He denies five counts of rape, controlling child prostitution, paying for the sexual services of a child, inciting child prostitution and causing prostitution for a gain.

Also accused is Nabeel Ahmed, 24, of Chadwell Heath Lane, who denies three counts of rape and his brother Jameel, 25, who denies two.

Anas Iqbal, 25, of Newham Way, East Ham, denies six counts of rape and paying for the sexual services of a child. Hassan Raza, 23, of Westminster Gardens, denies sexual assault.

The trial continues.