A MAN has denied raping a woman in a dark tunnel after she was left alone and searching for her friend after a night out.

Goran Husseini is accused of attacking the complainant after she refused to go home with him in the early hours of the morning in February this year.

It is claimed the 36-year-old followed the alleged victim after he spotted her walk past a line of taxis and repeatedly touched her hair and chin before demanding sex.

Teesside Crown Court heard the woman was left with a bloodied nose and crying after she was attacked in the dark tunnel close to Victoria Bridge in Thornaby – but Husseini denies the allegation.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said the complainant was left walking the streets alone when she lost a friend after a night out in Stockton.

He said: “She turned around and she had disappeared. She started looking for her, crossed the road and walked along the street.

“She then met the man who later raped her.

“He spoke in broken English and kept giving her cigarettes. She was freezing cold and offered her his jacket which she accepted.

“She walked across Victoria bridge with the man in the direction of Thornaby and the man started to say ‘I want to sex you.’ She told him numerous times that she did not want sex with him.

“The man began to kiss her on the mouth. She did not kiss him back. His saliva was all over her mouth and face. His stubble was like sandpaper.

“The man turned her around and she hit her nose on the side of the tunnel causing it to bleed. He pulled at her trousers and they came down including her knickers to just below her bottom.”

The court heard Husseini went on to have sex with the alleged victim.

Mr Dodds said: “She screamed at him ‘Why did you do that?’. At no point did she want sexual intercourse or consent to it. He forced himself upon her.

“She thought he was going to get really nasty and hit her.

“She was crying hysterically and sat on the floor outside the tunnel with her legs crossed crying. The man was stroking her back and hair, he was telling her to be a good lass.

“As soon as she got her keys back from his jacket she got up and ran up the hill.”

But the court heard Husseini, of Colville Street, Middlesborough, says the sex was consensual and despite his broken English, he would have understood the word "no".

The trial continues.