A tradesman accused of raping a woman he had just met has told a jury she made advances towards him and he was just “going with the flow”.

Harley Palise, 30, a floor sander by trade, is on trial in the County Court in Melbourne after pleading not guilty to raping a woman who he and a friend were giving a lift home from Lygon Street, Carlton, in the early hours of June 17, 2018.

The prosecution says the woman has no memory of what occurred and was too intoxicated or drug-affected to consent.

Mr Palise was on his way home after a night out at Crown when his friends, in a car in front, stopped after they saw a woman lying on the footpath, the court has heard.

Mr Palise and another friend, who was driving, gave her a lift home. Just before 5am, the car deviated into a residential street in Coburg, where prosecutors allege both Mr Palise and his friend raped her.

Mr Palise told the jury on Wednesday he did not want to give the woman a lift home in the first place and when she made advances towards him, he was “overwhelmed by the whole situation” and “just going with the flow”.

Mr Palise said he objected when his friend told him they were going to give the woman a lift home.

He said he had been “done” for cheating before and his partner would go through the car with a “fine-toothed comb”.

Mr Palise told the court he at first rejected the woman’s attempt to kiss him, but kissed her a second time, before climbing into the back of the car after he alleged she told him to “f— me, baby”. He said she was not slurring her words and was “communicating fine”.

“Did you form a view at any stage that she was too drunk to know what she was doing?” his defence barrister John Kelly, SC, asked.

“No,” Mr Palise said.

The men dropped her home. Crown prosecutor John Dickie said the woman was dishevelled and missing her jacket and engagement ring.

Under cross-examination, Mr Dickie put it to Mr Palise that he wasn’t overwhelmed at all.

“You knew [the woman] was vulnerable in the back of the car when you had sex with her yourself,” Mr Dickie said.

“That’s not the case at all,” Mr Palise replied.

Mr Palise knew, Mr Dickie said, that the woman was not in a fit state to give consent to anything, let alone sex.

“No, that’s not the case,” Mr Palise said.

Mr Dickie told the jury during the opening of the trial that the woman, who had been out with her friends in the city, later discovered bruising on her legs, groin and abdomen.

She attended a hospital and contacted police soon after, Mr Dickie said.

The cross-examination continues on Thursday before Judge Scott Johns.

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