A WOMAN told a court that she woke to find a professional cricketer raping her.

The woman said 27-year-old Mohammed Fazal, a professional with Saltburn, east Cleveland, was having sex with her.

Mr Fazal denied sexual contact with the woman, but prosecutor David Brooke said they were linked by DNA tests.

Judge Peter Armstrong told the jury at Teesside Crown Court that Mr Fazal was absent, but that they should not assume he was guilty.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she and her boyfriend went to the sportsman's three-bedroomed home in the early hours.

She told the jury she woke to find Mr Fazal, whose name she did not know, having sex with her. She told her boyfriend and police were called.

Mr Brooke said Mr Fazal denied sexual contact with her, but said she touched him intimately and that she asked him for money.

Mr Fazal, of Beaumont Road, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, denies rape and attempted rape in March last year.

The case continues.