In the darkness before dawn, Scott Richardson woke up on a sofa in his Redfern flat after a party, and looked across the lounge room.
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"I saw someone on the other sofa," Mr Richardson said.
"I thought it was my friend James."
Mr Richardson said he went over to the sofa, and leant over the doona as if to hug his friend.
"I realised by the size of the person, it wasn't my friend James. I got off and said 'sorry' and left."
Downing Centre District Court has heard the person lying on the couch was an American backpacker who had been at the party in the early hours of December 12, 2015.
The woman, who cannot be identified, told police that she woke up to Mr Richardson on top of her, raping her.
Mr Richardson has pleaded not guilty to two charges of sexual intercourse without consent.
He gave evidence at his trial on Tuesday.
"Did you remove a black pair of shorts off the body of the person on that couch?," defence barrister Bernard Brassil asked his client.
"No," Mr Richardson said.
"Did you remove the underpants … of that person on the couch?"
"No, I did not."
Mr Brassil asked if he sexually assaulted the woman.
"No I didn't."
Mr Richardson told the court he had just returned from England for the funerals of two grandparents.
On December 11, he went with friends to the Opera Bar, Scruffy Murphy's pub, and pubs in Surry Hills, before returning to his Redfern flat, where there was an "impromptu" party, the court heard.
During the party, he got a text message from a friend in the United Kingdom saying another friend had died.
Soon after that message, Mr Richardson said he made some phone calls, and went to sleep thinking about his dead friend.
"I sort of laid back into the sofa, let it all sink in. I drifted off thinking about what happened."
Under cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, Mr Richardson denied he had been pretending to sleep on the couch.
He also denied kissing another woman at the party without warning.
The court has previously heard people in the flat woke up to the woman screaming: "I can't believe this happened. I was raped."
The woman rushed upstairs and told her boyfriend what happened, describing her attacker as a man in a white shirt with black hair.
The woman then saw Mr Richardson lying in bed asleep next to his girlfriend, with his white shirt on the floor, and she identified him as the man who raped her, the court heard.
The trial continues before Judge Chris Hoy.
