A lecturer accused of luring a 14-year-old boy into having sex through a teenage Internet chatroom told police he was secretly bisexual.

Oxford graduate Dr Anthony Gray, 31, of Tamarisk Gardens, Bicester, made contact with the teenager through a gay chatroom. The pair started chatting on the phone before arranging to meet in Cardiff, where Gray booked a double hotel room.

The boy told Cardiff Crown Court he was "confused" about his sexuality, but allegedly agreed to have sexual contact with Gray.

Gray - a churchgoer whose wife was seven-and-a-half months pregnant at the time - said: "I pretended I was a 22-year-old man living on my own."

Gray denies two serious sexual offences. He says the pair did not have sex but chatted and watched television.

Gray studied for his PhD at Oxford University between 1992 and 1995. He now works for a charity which trains undergraduates studying theology.

He said he had "struggled" with bisexuality since his marriage. He had seen gay pornography and had a sexual experience with an insurance worker he met through the Internet 18 months before.

James Mason, defending, said the boy's story was almost identical to a storyline in Channel 4's Queer as Folk.

But the boy said his evidence was based on fact. He added that he was straight and had received counselling.

The case continues.