A WOMAN was chatted up by her attacker in the street before being raped, a court was told yesterday.

The 22-year-old said Mohamed Hassan, 33, targeted her as she walked to her boyfriend's home in Middlesbrough at 4am, after they had rowed earlier.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Mr Hassan had told her she had beautiful eyes, but then grabbed her neck and pushed her through the open door of his nearby home.

He is alleged to have forced her upstairs to his bedroom where he stripped and raped her, and forced her to perform a sex act, the court was told.

The woman eventually grabbed her clothes, fled the house, then flagged down a police van.

When Mr Hassan was arrested, he told police he had sexual intercourse and oral sex with her, both with her consent.

Katharine Dunn, defending, challenged the woman and said she chatted up Hassan after she had been drinking in six pubs with her girlfriends.

Miss Dunn said: "What happened is that he was chatting you up and you felt flattered, and you realised your mistake when you were in the bedroom and you ran out."

Mr Hassan, of Surrey Street, Middlesbrough, denies false imprisonment, rape and indecent assault on July 12, last year.

The case continues.