An extremely distressed patient of a former York psychiatrist today broke down as she told a jury that he raped her in her own home.

But the woman told Leeds Crown Court that she kept seeing Dr William Kerr because she believe no one else could help her.

Under cross-examination, the woman repeatedly broke down as she was asked for details about her sessions with Dr Kerr, now aged 75, of Alne, near Easingwold.

She told the court she had been wary of inviting the doctor to her home because of sex acts he had committed on her previously at his surgery.

Asked why she had agreed to let him in to her home, she said: "He was the only person who could help me."

In a statement read out in court, the woman said she had tried to keep some distance between them when he arrived but he had forced himself on her.

"I offered no resistance because I felt powerless" she said.

In a later statement given to police in November 1999, the woman said: "On this occasion, after the home visit where he raped me, I turned up at his Harrogate clinic.

She said Kerr had gone behind a screen and committed a sex act, which he wanted her to watch.

"I wanted him to make me better. He wouldn't talk about my problems. He just wanted to talk about sex.

"I just wanted to get my problems sorted out and he was the person to sort them out."

The jury is being asked to determine whether Dr Kerr carried out four rapes and 15 indecent assaults on former patients in North Yorkshire between the 1960s and the 1980s.

A different jury has already decided he is unfit to plead because of mental impairment, but Dr Kerr has denied all the allegations in interviews with police.

When asked if she clung physically to Dr Kerr, and if she had put her head on his shoulder during consultations, the woman said no.

When asked if she had made advances towards the doctor when he visited her at home the woman, who had suffered depression because of over-protective parents, denied this.

The hearing continues.