Trio in the dock are claimed to have planned to watch recording for sexual gratification

A STUDENT accused of arranging his friends to secretly film him romping with a female scholar claims it was a ‘funny prank’.

Shabar Hussain, 21, of Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale, and Lemar Garcia, 20, from east London, hid under George Iaponas, 24, bed at University of Westminster halls of residence in central London.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard claims that when the woman discovered she had been filmed having sex by his pals, Iaponas threatened to post the footage on Facebook if she complained.

Iaponas said he did not know Garcia and Hussain had a camera at the ready and claimed he invited them under his bed to create a ‘funny moment’ to remember from their student days.

He said: “I didn’t really think what kind of kick the guys were going to get out of it.

“I just thought it was going to be a funny moment from our student years.

“We were at university, we were being stupid.”

Iaponas said the woman went berserk and accused him of rape when Garcia and Hussain emerged from under the bed ‘bursting with laughter’.

Iaponas said he told the woman he had set up a hidden camera on a shelf and would post the footage on the internet if she made a rape allegation.

“Once she said that I had raped her, straight away I made up that I had a hidden camera,” he said.

“I said: ‘There’s a camera up there and it’s recorded everything’ and I said: ‘If you tell people I’ve raped you I’m going to put it on Facebook’.”

Garcia was said to have admitted to police that he uploaded a film to his laptop which prosecutors claim they planned to gain ‘sexual gratification’ from watching.

Garcia, Hussain and Iaponas all deny voyeurism.

The trial continues.