A Teesside woman was raped by a masked intruder after he threatened to hurt her daughter, a court heard yesterday.

The mother-of-two, who cannot be named, sobbed as she told how she woke to find the balaclava-wearing man beside her bed, where her young daughter was sleeping.

Her daughter woke and the man threatened to hurt the girl if the mother did not do as he said.

Aidan Marron, prosecuting, said it was the Crown's case that Timothy Din was responsible for the rape, as well as the attempted rape of three other women between November 1999 and December 2000, in Thornaby, near Stockton, Teesside.

He said all the victims described their attacker as stocky, with a local accent.

Mr Din, 44, of Yeovil Walk, Hartlepool, denies a charge of rape on November 23, 1999 and charges of attempted rape on February 4 and 20, 2000, and March 19, 2000. He also denies burglary with intent to rape on December 10, 2000.

Mr Marron told Teesside Crown Court that Mr Din was responsible for the "terrifying sexual attacks", which began with a sexual assault on a 15-year-old babysitter, for which he had not been charged.

This happened in May 1999 when the girl woke to find a masked man in the room.

After the rape in November 1999, a teenage girl was sexually assaulted as she walked home on February 4, 2000.

Another girl was sexually assaulted while she slept on the sofa of a friend's flat on February 20, 2000.

On March 19, 2000, a woman and her young child were asleep on the sofa in their home. When the woman woke, a masked man was there, said Mr Marron.

He said the man ran off after the child began to cry as he tried to attack the woman. Earrings stolen from the house that night were later found at Mr Din's home.

Early on December 10, 2000, a woman and her partner found a man in their yard who ran off, leaving a balaclava. DNA linked it to Mr Din.

The trial continues.