THREE schoolgirls from the North-East have now told a court that they were raped after meeting a group of teenage travellers at Appleby Horse Fair.

On Monday, one girl, who was 13 at the time, sobbed as she told Carlisle Crown Court how a 15-year-old youth forced her to have sex after persuading her to go for a walk.

And yesterday, one of her friends, who was 14 at the time, said she too was raped by the same youth minutes later.

Then another of her friends told how she too had been raped at the same time by one of his friends.

All three girls - who previous reports suggest are from the Darlington area - have been giving evidence in the trial of a youth, from County Wexford, Ireland, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Now aged 17, he denies two charges of rape.

Yesterday, the second girl told how she was raped by the teenager she met while watching horses being washed in the river at Appleby, Cumbria, in June 2005.

She told the jury how the 15-year-old Irish traveller, "with a cheeky smile", attacked her just minutes after he had done the same to her 13-year-old friend.

She said he first pulled her friend into an alleyway then, after a few moments, came out, smiled at his friends, and turned his attention to her, pulling her behind a horse box, where he raped her too.

She described how she was raped after what she thought would be a friendly walk with the youth and his friends went wrong.

Afterwards, she said, they sought refuge with an elderly couple, who walked with them and the boys back towards the town.

She told the court that after the adults left, her friend - who had not previously been alarmed by the boys' behaviour - went on ahead with the youth, while she and another friend walked some way behind with some of his friends.

The youth led her friend into the alleyway, but soon afterwards he returned and attacked her too, she said.

A third girl said that while one of her friends was being raped beside the horse box, she was taken to the other side by another youth and raped there.

"It was horrible," she said.

The trial continues.