A YOUNG woman told a court yesterday that a man had held a knife to her throat and told her to take off her clothes.

The woman said that Mark McKeown had taken a knife out of the back of his Peugeot car and held what she thought was the blunt side of it to her throat.

She told a jury at Teesside Crown Court: "He said 'You will give me it.' I was still crying, and I felt that if I hadn't taken my trousers off he would have really hurt me."

The woman said she was in a car with Mr McKeown which had stopped on a secluded road near Sedgefield in December last year when he asked her if they could have sex.

She said she told him she had a boyfriend.

When she said no several times his voice became more aggressive, she said.

Mr McKeown, 22, of Estoril Road, Darlington, is charged with raping the woman. He has denied the charge.

Deborah Sherwin, prosecuting, told the court: "The woman felt she had no choice but to comply with what he was asking of her."

Miss Sherwin said Mr McKeown was fully aware that what he was doing was wrong, because he said to the woman that she was not to tell anyone about what had happened.

When Mr McKeown was arrested and interviewed by the police, he told the officers it was done with her consent and there had been no objection by her to it, said Miss Sherwin.

The case continues.