A woman told a court yesterday that a man wielding a knife kidnapped her from her home and then raped her in his car.

The 22-year-old said that steel worker John Owens, 33, abducted her from her parents' house in North Yorkshire after making her submit to sex in the kitchen.

A jury at Teesside Crown Court heard how he put her in the back of an Isuzu Trooper and drove to moorland. Then he picked up the knife and subjected her to an horrendous assault, she said.

After driving her through the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, he took her for a meal before returning her to her home. Police were called but the jury heard that the woman did not tell them that they had already had sex in the kitchen.

She said: "I felt so cheap about it that I did not want to talk about it. I agreed to the sex. It was my only way of getting out."

Jeremy Hill-Baker, prosecuting, said that Mr Owens grabbed the woman after he saw her outside her home struggling to start her car.

He told the court that he had previously had sex with her, usually in his car at lunchtimes. He said she had initiated sex.

Mr Owens, of Woodbine Row, Danby Wiske near Northallerton, denies three charges of rape, kidnap, false imprisonment and threats to kill in April.

The case continues.