A WOMAN left messages on her second husband's mobile phone saying she had been raped by her ex-husband, a court was told yesterday.

The couple, who had been married a year and had a new baby, were living apart at the time of the alleged attack, said her second husband.

When he played his phone messages on a Saturday morning there were two from his 30-year-old wife, at 3.20am and 3.40am.

He told a Teesside Crown Court jury: "On the first call she was really upset - crying her eyes out. She said 'Ring me back as soon as possible'. In the next call she was crying worse than before, saying that he had raped her."

His wife said she had been drinking wine until late with her ex and some neighbours. She told him he could stay, but he then raped her, she claimed.

When her 39-year-old former husband was arrested, he allegedly said to Detective Constable Annie Brown: "I am not surprised."

When told that his ex-wife claimed she had woken up in bed to find him having sex with her, he said: "I thought everything was okay between the two of us initially, but it wasn't. Afterwards, she changed her mind and she asked me to leave."

The factory worker, from Newton Aycliffe, denies rape on October 21 last year.

The case continues.