A New Year's Eve celebration for a young Southport woman turned to disaster when she met a stranger who raped her, a court has heard.

The woman, who is in her early 30's, told a jury yesterday (Tuesday, September 23 2008) that she went to a pub celebrating with friends and they then went to a club in Southport town centre in the early hours of New Year's Day.

The court heard that she eventually became separated from them and met a stranger, Sandy Barrowman, who invited her back to his home for a drink. 

They got a taxi there and she remembered him offering a drink in the lounge but because of her intoxicated state could not remember whether she had one.

"The next thing I remember is being in his bedroom on a bed on my back," she said.

"He was on top of me and he was trying to strangle me. My head was hanging off the bed with my face slightly towards the window. He was straddling me and had his hands around my neck with his arms straight out. He was leaning forward and pressing down,"she alleged.

"I could not say anything because I could not breathe. He looked very vicious and in control. The next thing I remember I was the other way round on the bed with the window on my right. I don't know whether I passed out, that was just a snapshot.

"This time I wasn't dressed. He was on top of me with my legs over his shoulders and he was having sex with me. I started struggling and he grabbed hold of my hair and he smacked my head against the bed post more than five times very forcibly and I got a lot of bruising."

She sobbed as she told Liverpool Crown Court that his face was very threatening and her instinct was just to lay there. "I couldn't think of anything. I didn't scream or say anything. I was scared," she claimed.

Eventually he stopped having sex with her and she reacted as if nothing had happened as she did not want him to become aggressive again, she explained.

She went to the bathroom just wearing her knickers and when she came out she said she wanted to go home and he threw her top at her.

"His facial expression changed again back to what he was like when strangling me and I just started running down the stairs."

Questioned by Henry Riding, prosecuting, she said that although she only had her top and knickers on she knew she just had to get away as she was frightened of him.

Near the bottom of the stairs she suddenly encountered a middle-aged woman, wearing a nightgown, who asked who she was and where her clothes were. "It was just so surreal," she said.

The woman, Barrowman's aunt, shouted at him to give her her clothes but instead he gave her his tracksuit bottoms. She went into the lounge where there was a man, the woman's husband, and the woman told her nephew to phone for a taxi which he did.

The jury heard that the alleged rape victim got to her mother's home shortly before 6 am. Her mother seeing her dishevelled state asked if she had been raped and when she confirmed this the police were called.

Mr Riding said that when she was medically examined she was found to have a bite mark on her face and another on her arm, marks on her neck consistent with pressure and bruising in her genital area.

When 26-year-old Barrowman, of Roselea Drive, Southport, was arrested police found the woman's clothing and jewellery in his room. When interviewed he denied the allegations and said they had had consensual sex.

Asked about the bite mark to her cheek he described it as "a little nibble," said Mr Riding.

Barrowman has pleaded not guilty to rape.

The case continues.

By Lynda Roughley