A WIDOW who accused a former fire chief of raping her said that he had offered to cook her a meal at his home.

The woman told a jury that she was cold after waiting for a bus when she arrived at Peter Glover's home.

She said that she had fallen for the 62-year-old after only one meeting with him.

Speaking over a courtroom television link, she said that Mr Glover invited her out for a meal, but when she travelled to meet him in Loftus, east Cleveland, he took her to his home saying that he was cooking for her there.

She told a Teesside Crown Court jury: "I never expected to go to his house.

"When he met me off the bus, that is when he said that he would cook me a meal.

"I waited so long for the bus and I was so cold. When I got there, he said that he would warm me up. He said that we were going to his house and he said 'I will cook you something and make you a cup of tea'.

"The Peter that I met, I could have spent my life with, I told my friends that.

"He made me realise that I should settle down with another man after the death of my husband. He put something there that had died with my husband.

"I was really excited about seeing him."

She alleged that Mr Glover made sexual advances to her in the house, and she told him that she was not there for that.

When interviewed by police, Mr Glover denied he had sex with her.

Mr Glover, of Coronation Road, Loftus, who ran the town's retained fire brigade for many years, denies three charges of rape.

The trial continues