Teenager raped woman in garden - claim

The woman told York Crown Court she was too scared to speak as Philip James Nicholas, 19, pushed her up against the wall of her house, then forced himself on her at about midnight in July last year.

He had appeared suddenly on a racing bicycle and after a brief conversation, followed her along her street and into her garden, the woman alleged in the witness box.

After he left her lying on the ground, she phoned her ex-partner.

"I was crying on the phone, no words would come out," said the woman.

She alleged that she put her clothes in a basin, ran a bath and sat in it with her dressing gown on.

"How were you feeling?" asked prosecution barrister John Elvidge.

"Shaking," said the woman.

Nicholas, of no fixed address, denies rape.

Opening the prosecution, Mr Elvidge said it was a wet night as the mother walked home alone through east York from the pub where she had spent the evening with friends.

"It was very quiet and there was nobody about," the barrister said.

As she passed the end of a street, Nicholas appeared on his bicycle.

The woman told the jury she felt shocked at his arrival.

As she had her keys in her hand and was about to go into her house, Nicholas held her arms and pushed her against a wall.

He tried to kiss her and she turned her head around.

She told the jury she remembered being on the ground and a rattling like a belt buckle. Then he raped her. He left when she pulled his hair hard.

Earlier, Mr Elvidge told the jury that Nicholas stole her purse as he left and had it on him when he was arrested later the same day.

He denied all knowledge of the purse to police and claimed the woman had wanted to have sex with him.

"The prosecution say that had there been consensual sex in this unlikely place, would he have stolen the purse?" said Mr Elvidge.

"The prosecution say this was an opportunistic attack on a vulnerable woman on her own late at night."

The trial continues.

Updated: 11:02 Wednesday, January 09, 2002