A MAN raped a woman in her home after flying into a rage when he found toiletries belonging to her ex-husband, a court was told yesterday.

John Ellison, 32, of Sunniside, Tow Law, County Dur-ham, has gone on trial at Teesside Crown Court accused of raping and indecently assaulting the woman.

Mr Ellison denies the charges.

Dan Cordey, prosecuting, said Mr Ellison had met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in a pub in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on November 15 last year.

He said they got on well together and shared a kiss before going to her house for a drink at about 4pm.

In the house, the pair chatted about their backgrounds and the woman "felt comfortable" with him.

But Mr Ellison became angry after he went upstairs to the bathroom and found some toiletries which had been left by the woman's estranged husband, said Mr Cordey.

"This did not go down well with the defendant," he said.

Mr Cordey said it was the Crown's case that Mr Ellison lost his temper and put his belt around the woman's neck to strangle her before he raped and indecently assaulted her in the lounge.

He said the Crown alleged that Mr Ellison had tried to feel the woman's breasts and discovered one had been removed during a mastectomy following cancer.

When he discovered the prosthetic breast she was wearing he removed it and threw it across the room, said Mr Cordey.

The woman, he said, managed to get away from the house and ran to the nearby home of a relative who called the police. Officers found Mr Ellison still there, he said.

In a police interview Mr Ellison denied there had been any assaults, either sexual of violent. He said they had been upstairs in bed, but could not have sex because of the am-ount of alcohol he had drunk.

Mr Ellison was said to have told the police that he had taken the dog for a walk to get some fresh air and when he returned the woman had gone.

The case continues.