A WOMAN was raped at midnight in her own garden by a visitor to a neighbour's house, a jury has heard.

The Tang Hall woman told York Crown Court she was left so frightened by the attack that she had not yet been able to return to her former home.

The attack is alleged to have occurred when the woman returned home after an evening with friends.

She said she had been too scared to scream for help when Philip James Nicholas, 19, pinned her against her front wall.

Then he forced her round the corner of the house and raped her, the woman alleged in evidence.

Nicholas, no fixed address, denies rape.

The woman alleged that the assault started with Nicholas trying to kiss her against her wall, although she turned her head away.

Asked why she did not scream for help, she replied: "I was scared, scared of what was going to happen."

As he raped her by the side of the house, she felt numb.

At the end, she pulled his hair.

"He jumped up and disappeared. I could heard the footsteps going off," she said.

"How did you feel?" asked prosecution barrister John Elvidge.

"Shaken", said the woman.

She said she went in and called her former partner and after talking to police went to her mother's. She had never lived in the house again.

"I couldn't face going back. I was scared to," she said.

The woman alleged that she had had problems with the teenage son of her neighbour.

People were using drugs in the neighbour's house and that on occasions, foil and other items used to smoke heroin were thrown into the woman's garden.

About a week before the alleged rape, she saw Nicholas in company with the neighbour's son.

"He (Nicholas) was one of those youths who smoke heroin and litter bits of foil over your garden fence?" asked defence barrister Taryn Turner.

"For him I wasn't sure, I don't know," the woman replied.

In July she had spent the evening at a nearby pub when she had had several pints and a glass of vodka and orange.

On the way home she met Nicholas on his bike and they walked together down to her home.

The trial continues.

Updated: 10:43 Wednesday, November 21, 2001