A FORMER soldier was totally "bamboozled" by a woman's claim that he had dragged her down a dark driveway and tried to rape her, a court heard.

John Terence Ellison, 31, said he was just being a friend to the 23-year-old and ensuring she did not "get herself into trouble" after they were turned away from the New Market pub, in Tow Law, County Durham, after serving hours.

Mr Ellison, of Front Street, Sunniside, near Tow Law, told Teesside Crown Court: "She was shouting to go back to the pub and that she wanted a pint. I was trying to calm her down."

Mr Ellison, who is on trial for attempted rape, said that, as they walked along Church Lane last May 30, the woman turned to go back to the pub while he went to the toilet in the driveway where the alleged attack happened.

He said she then appeared at the foot of the drive, fully clothed, claiming he had tried to rape her. The next time he saw her she was semi-naked, asking a woman at a nearby house for help.

"I never took advantage of her," he said.

Peter Makepeace, prosecuting, said Mr Ellison could not explain why the woman's clothes had been found littered on the driveway.

"You took her top off and her bra off and pulled her trousers down and you humiliated her. You frightened the living daylights out of her," said Mr Makepeace.

But Mr Ellison denied removing her clothes and said he "couldn't work out" how they had got there.

The court heard evidence from Joseph Clark, Mr Ellison's uncle, who had been drinking with the pair earlier in the evening.

He said the two had enjoyed a casual sexual relationship in the past and had been kissing in the pub, with the woman stroking Mr Ellison's knee under the table.

The trial continues.