A MOTHER woke to find her ex-husband having sex with her, a court was told yesterday.

The 30-year-old woman said that she froze because she was so shocked by what was happening, a jury at Teesside Crown Court was told.

She told police that her ex-husband raped her after she allowed him to stay the night in her older son's room, following a drinking session with him and friends.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said: "She was shocked. She did not invite him into the bedroom, and she had most certainly not invited him to have sex with her. There had been no intimacy between them."

She phoned her new husband, who was away from home, and her ex-husband was arrested that lunchtime.

When he was cautioned, he said: "I misread the signs." The man claimed that they went upstairs, got into the same bed and fell asleep.

He woke up and they were cuddling. He said they then kissed and had sex.

The accused, from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, pleads not guilty to rape last October.

The case continues