A GIRL who claims she was raped told a court of the day a man barged into her home and dropped his trousers.

The 18-year-old girl told Teesside Crown Court that Mark Cochrane, 23, tried to rape her in his car months later.

Talking about the time he walked into her house, she said: "He came in. I didn't invite him in. He sat on my settee and he quickly pulled his trousers down. I was stood on the other side of the room.

"It ended when my brother came into the room."

She said that she stayed home instead of returning with him to the centre of Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, alleged that some time later, when she was out in the village with friends, Mr Cochrane offered them a lift but he drove off with her leaving the two others on the pavement.

She said that he stopped in a secluded spot where he tried to rape her on the front seat of his Escort car.

She also told the jury that later she was driving with her boyfriend when she saw Mr Cochrane with another girl in his car in Teesdale.

They followed him and they found him parked with his arms across the girl's throat. The girl, who they knew, ran to their car and they drove her away.

Dan Cordey, defending, challenged the 18-year-old about her attempted rape allegation, claiming that she had been willing to perform a sex act with Mr Cochrane. She denied it.

Mr Cochrane of Balmer Hill, Gainford, near Darlington, denies two rapes, attempted rape, unlawful sexual intercourse and two indecent assaults between January 1999 and last December.

The case continues.