The newly-wed woman told him she did not want to have sex because she was so drunk but he carried on, a jury were told.

He went on to rape her four more times during their two year marriage including on one occasion when she was still in stitches a week after giving birth in a Caesarean operation.

When the bride, now 23, complained he replied: "You're my wife, it's allowed", and after one attack he asked her calmly to go and make him a cup of tea, Exeter Crown Court was told.

The 35 year old man, who now lives in West Cornwall, denies five rapes on the same woman in Bideford, North Devon, between 2009 and 2011.

Richard Crabb, prosecuting, said the couple had been together for five years and had two children before they decided to get married.

They met when she was 16 and there was a 12 year age gap between them.

Mr Crabb said: "She was very much in love with him and called him her Prince Charming. There were rows but they always made up. She says everything altered once they got married.

"The first rape was on their wedding night. One can see the headlines: 'Bride cries rape on her wedding night' - but it is not quite as it seems.

"On that day they married in the morning and in the bride's words 'we christened our wedding vows straight away because we wanted to have sex before we got too drunk, so we had consensual sex after the marriage'.

"They then had a party in which they were accompanied by a large group of friends and they went on the mother and father of all pub crawls.

"She became very, very drunk and recalls dancing on a bar doing karaoke at one pub and seeing the sun come up as they walked home.

"She asked him to help her out of her shoes and he became amorous. She told him to stop because she was too drunk but he continued. She was drifting in and out of consciousness and told him to get off her.

"He took no notice and had sex with her against her will."

Mr Crabb said the other alleged rapes occurred later in the marriage, including one when she was very heavily pregnant with her third child and another shortly after the birth by caesarean section.

He said: "When she asked him why he had done it he said 'You are my wife. You were lying there asking for it."

Mr Crabb said he had said the same thing after the final two attacks, which took place within days of each other early last year. After one he said 'You're my wife. It's allowed'.

The man told police all the allegations were lies and the only sex he had with his wife was consensual.

He said: "She had made it all up to get me out of her life."

The trial continues.