A University Challenge contestant who became an internet sensation because of his triple-barrelled surname has been charged with rape.

History graduate Bartholomew Cuthbert Joly de Lotbiniere will go on trial next year accused of a string of sex attacks including rape, two sexual assaults and an attempted sexual assault on the same alleged victim.

The 21-year-old former York University student was in the team that reached this year's University Challenge semi finals - before being knocked out by Peterhouse College, Cambridge.

Lotbiniere appeared at York Crown Court yesterday and denied the charges against him.

In the dock: History graduate Bartholomew Cuthbert Joly de Lotbiniere will go on trial next year accused of one charge of rape, two of sexual assault and one of attempted sexual assault

Team: Mr Joly de Lotbiniere sat next to York teammates with the simplest of names, including Sam Smith (centre left), a chemistry student from Guernsey

Now living at home in North-West London, he was told he will face trial in February next year.

The charges relate to the same alleged victim and are said to have happened in June 2014.

HOW JOLY DE LOTBINIERE GOT HIS NAME MORE THAN 125 YERS AGO Ancestor: Politician Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbiniere Bartolomeo Cuthbert Joly de Lotbiniere, has a brother named Bede Massimo, 15, and an 18-year-old sister named Aphra Antonia. His parents are Max, 52, and 51-year-old Amanda. The family home is a semi-detached property in Kensal Rise, North-West London, where houses sell for up to £1.5million. The Joly de Lotbiniere surname was first formed 127 years ago by politician Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbiniere, the son of Huguenot businessman Pierre-Gustave Joly and Roman Catholic mother Julie-Christine Chartier de Lotbinière. He took on the double-barrelled name following the death of his mother in 1888. French-born Sir Henri-Gustave, who was also a lawyer and lived from 1829 to 1908, served as the Premier of Quebec, a federal cabinet minister in Canada and the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Advertisement

His appearances on the BBC2 quiz show created massive internet interest - mainly because of his long name.

It only just fit on the panel in front of him.

One viewer Tweeted: 'When you watch a quiz and the team with a member called Joly de Lotbiniere you know you've got University Challenge on.'

A university lecturer said: 'Yes! Barto Joly de Lotbiniere is back on Uni Challenge! The guy is a legend! His name should win all on its own.'

Other viewers of the show joked that the 'voiceover guy has been practising how to say Joly de Lotbiniere for hours' and that 'even Joly de Lotbiniere himself has difficulty saying his name'.

Mr Joly de Lotbiniere, former editor-in-chief of York Vision newspaper, was educated at top Roman Catholic comprehensive The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in Holland Park, West London.

Other former pupils of the respected school - which is non-selective save for its pupils having to be Catholics - include Labour MP Jack Dromey, ex-Chelsea footballer Eddie Newton, the late Doctor Who actor Roger Delgado and Oritse Williams from the boy band JLS.

Joly de Lotbiniere spoke after his appearance on University Challenge and admitted he had enjoyed the fame it brought.

York University's student newspaper York Vision asked whether he was the campus' most eligible bachelor.

When asked when he first found out he'd gone viral he said he was 'stuck up a hill in Northern Italy on holiday without any wifi so I became aware only gradually'.

He added: 'Something seemed suspicious when the local village children started to come up for autographs and then the local count held a banquet in my honour'.

He was asked about what his family thought of his fame and said: 'They're quietly proud I think, and happy that somebody's finally put the Joly de Lotbinière name on the map, even if it was to the ridicule of the unwashed masses of the twittersphere'.

Delighted: University of Portsmouth musical theatre lecturer Ben Macpherson said: 'Yes! Barto Joly de Lotbiniere is back on Uni Challenge! The guy is a legend! His name should win all on its own'

Impressed: Scott MacLean, a civil servant from Stirling, tweeted: 'When you watch a quiz and the team with a member called Joly de Lotbiniere isn't the posh team you know you've got University Challenge on'