A housewife, who gave religious lessons to an alleged rape victim, said the intellectually disabled teen wanted to "repent" for her previous sexual encounters.

The 51-year-old, who cannot be named as it could lead to the victim's identity, said she started giving the teen lessons two months before her alleged rape. The housewife took the stand on Wednesday on the third day of an ongoing trial.

Then 18-years-old, the victim was allegedly raped by her 39-year-old half-brother over two nights in March 2010 when she was staying in his one-room flat. But, it emerged in court on Monday that she had sex in a hotel with a stranger who approached her just one or two days after the alleged rape. Her teacher told the High Court on Wednesday that she was "shocked" to learn of this adding: "I thought she was repentant (of her previous sexual encounters)".

She added that she offered to teach the victim after meeting her in January 2010. The girl had told her and her husband that she had engaged in sex with men before and had gone through an abortion. On Monday, defence lawyer S.K. Kumar had suggested that the victim would not have done this if she had been sexually abused. Yet under questioning by Deputy Public Prosecutor S. Sellakumaran, a psychiatrist had told the court that a person with low intelligence is more easily induced into agreeing to sex if offered money or food.