A woman on trial in Vatican City for allegedly leaking confidential documents has denied she had sex with a priest.
Francesca Chaouqui, 35, a public relations consultant, is one of five people charged in the case. The Vatican made it a crime to leak official documents three years ago after an earlier "Vatileaks" scandal.
Chaouqui, who is married and heavily-pregnant, told the court she did not have sex with Father Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a Spanish priest who is another defendent in the case. She said that his mother had been asleep in the same hotel room at the time.
Last month, Balda suggested Chaouqui had seduced him, and told the court their relationship was "clearly for me as a priest compromising".
But Chaouqui told the court this week: "I never had sex with him. I was never next to him carnally." She said she had been described "as a sort of whore looking for priests to seduce".
On her Facebook page, before giving evidence, she posted that she was not afraid and was looking forward to being able to put her side of the story.
Two journalists, Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, who published books based on documents that it is alleged they got from Chaouqui and Balda, are also on trial along with Balda's assistant, Nicola Maio.
Chaouqui and Balda had been members of a body set up by Pope Francis to look at reforms, the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See. The defendants face up to eight years in prison if convicted.
