A Syrian teenager accused of taking part in a brutal gang rape only came to the UK 15 months before the alleged attack, a court has heard.

The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave evidence on the seventh day of his trial today.

He is accused of two counts of rape, along with his friend, Ahmed Naeem, 18, who faces one charge of rape.

They and a number of other men, who have not been traced, are accused of raping an 18-year-old girl in Gillingham, Kent in November 1 last year.

The victim in the case has said she was approached in central Gillingham before she was raped in a house

Maidstone Crown Court heard how the boy came to the UK from Syria around a year and a half before the alleged attack and doesn't know where his parents are.

Speaking through a translator, he said: 'I came to the UK approximately one and a half years ago, I came from Syria without any family.

'I don't know where my parents are, maybe they're in Turkey or Syria, I don't know where they are.

'When I got here I lived in Ashford (Kent) for two months in Millbank (reception centre). They accommodate many of the boys there, this was in August 2014.

'I stayed there for around two months then went to an address in Gillingham for a year then began to make friends.'

The boy then moved to another home in Gillingham, the town where the alleged rape took place, and later moved to nearby Gravesend.

Speaking of the night of the alleged rape, the Syrian teenager said: 'The boys encouraged me to go and my friend said if I don't go with her I'm not a man.'

He claimed the girl 'seemed to be happy... she was sitting on the bed... then I slept with her.'

A teenage girl was allegedly gang-raped in Gillingham, Kent after she was lured there by a group of men. Pictured posed by actress

The girl claims she bumped into an old school friend, before they were then approached by a group of men, who she assumed knew her friend and who invited them to a party at their home.

But she says that, once in the terraced house, she was brutally raped before escaping by punching and headbutting some of the men and getting home to tell her mum what had happened.

It is alleged victim was raped four times and sexually assaulted twice.

Earlier in the trial, the court heard how weeks before the incident, the alleged victim had been drinking heavily after breaking up with her partner.

At the time of the alleged rapes, she was found to be around two times over the drink drive limit.