A man accused of having sex with a Shetland pony near Doncaster has denied he was carrying three cans of deodorant in his bag "to help with any horse smells" after the encounter.

Giving evidence at Sheffield Crown Court, Alan Barnfield, 44, was asked why he was carrying the deodorants when he went for walk past a field of horses near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in the middle of the night, in 2012.

Prosecutor Louise Reevell had been asking Barnfield about why police who spoke to him on the night found him "sweating profusely" and "smelling of horses".

Mrs Reevell asked the defendant whether the deodorant was "to help with any horse smells you may have to deal with".

Barnfield, of Doncaster, replied "No" and said he was on medication for blood pressure and taking painkillers which made him sweat a lot.

He told the jury that he sometimes sweated so much it dripped off his arms and, as he worked at a deodorant factory, he had as many as 20 cans at his Doncaster home.

Barnfield denies having sex with a pony called Sky in a field in the village of Loversall in the early hours of August 8 2012.

A count of outraging public decency was also put to him and he also pleaded not guilty to this charge.

In the witness box, Barnfield repeatedly denied having any sexual interest in animals and any sexual contact with the horse.

The prosecutor said to him: "You had the DNA of a horse on swabs that were taken on your penis and that's because you had intercourse with Sky."

"No," Barnfield replied.

Mrs Reevell said to him: "What part of a horse are you most attracted to?"

The defendant replied: "I'm not attracted to horses."

And Mrs Reevell asked: "Are you someone who has a sexual interest in animals?"

Barnfield said: "No."

But he admitted that he had previously pleaded guilty to possessing images of bestiality, involving a woman and a horse.

Dressed in a black T-shirt and black trousers and sporting long brown hair and a goatee beard, Barnfield repeatedly denied that he had inappropriately touched or had sex with Sky.

He said he had gone for a walk and fed and stroked another horse in Sky's field called Savannah but he had not gone over the fence.

And he told the jury of five men and seven women that he did not know how bestiality images found by police had got on his phone.

He said he sometimes got sent pictures of this kind via Bluetooth in pubs but he always deleted them.

Prosecutors have told the jury that Barnfield, of Hexthorpe Lane, Hexthorpe, was spoken to by police after people living near stables in the village of Loversall rang officers because they thought he was going to steal horses.

The prosecution case is that Barnfield assaulted the pony with two bottles before having sex with it.

The trial continues.