A NEIGHBOUR saw a man accused of rape kissing his victim as she sat on his lap on the day of the alleged sex attack, a jury’s been told.

Emma Conway, 37, who lives in a neighbouring block of flats, gave evidence that she could see Gordon Cowan and the woman, who claims she was raped, sitting on the balcony of a flat opposite.

Cowan, 27, a prisoner at Perth, denies rape and has lodged a special defence claiming that any sexual activity between him and the 27-year-old woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was consensual.

Giving evidence yesterday/on Friday, mother of three Ms Conway said she’d been unable to sleep and her attention had been attracted to the balcony by the noise of a party in the third floor apartment across the road from her home in Lochgelly.

At first, she said, she heard the complainer’s voice being raised and saw her behaving in a threatening manner towards a girl on the balcony.

She told a jury at the High Court in Livingston on Friday: “She seemed to be quite irate and aggressive toward the girl. They were hanging over the balcony.

"I was concerned that there was going to be something really serious happening on that balcony because they were really, really intoxicated.

“I thought one of them was going to come over the balcony or there was going to be a fight.”

Later that morning between 7.30 and 9am she said she saw the accused and the woman, he is accused of raping, sitting on plastic chairs on the balcony, deep in conversation.

She said: “At one point she was actually sitting on his knee. I did see them kissing a couple of times, not much else other than that. At one point she seemed to push him away.

“I saw them kissing a couple of times. I saw her pushing him away once.”

She said there was no further noise from the adjacent property after 9am that day and the last time she saw the complainer was when she actually left the property.

She added: “That was roughly half two to half three the next afternoon. I know that because I was watching the football

“I was like: ‘That’s some walk of shame like when you go home after a night out at that time in the afternoon.’

The trial, before Lord Uist, continues.