A former Army officer accused of being a serial rapist claimed in court today that an alleged victim ate chicken “suggestively” as she made eye contact with him in a City bar.

Brian Witty, 41, denies raping three women and sexually assaulting a fourth between 1995 and last year.

The former Parachute Regiment captain met two of his alleged victims on a dating website and the other two in a pub and a casino, the jury heard at Kingston upon Thames crown court.

Witty, now a City banker, described meeting one of the women by chance in the Abacus bar in 2008. He said he and a female friend were sitting by the counter after a business meeting when the woman — Miss C — came in.

He said: “We noticed her because she was on her own. We thought perhaps somebody was coming to meet her because she ordered some food.” Asked by Mark Milliken-Smith, defending: “Had you made contact with her by this time?” he replied: “No, apart from eye contact. We caught each other’s eye.”

He said his friend then commented on the way Miss C was eating her chicken. Looking over, he saw she was eating it in a way that replicated a sexual act, he claimed. “I saw her suggestively eating chicken… I was looking at her and she smiled.”

He said he went to the lavatory and came back to find his friend talking to Miss C. He then bought the group some cocktails. Witty claimed they got on well, and that his friend thought Miss C was flirting with him.

Three days later, Witty and Miss C met up for drinks in Richmond before going back to his Teddington flat, where it is alleged he raped her, the jury heard.

Witty denied throwing a packet of fried rice over the woman after the alleged attack. He said he ordered a Chinese takeaway for them both after they had consensual, “vigorous” sex.

As they talked, the mood turned sour over a conversation about football, he claimed. She remarked that Portsmouth was a better team than Manchester United, he jokingly told her to “f**k off” and she took offence and asked him to call her a cab, he said.

He claimed he did so, the food arrived and he told her to take some of the rice away with her. Asked by Mr Milliken-Smith: “Did you throw it at her?” he replied: “Absolutely not.”

The trial continues.