A MAN was yesterday remanded in custody after being convicted of raping a teenager following a party at his home.

Barry Sinclair will be sentenced next month after background reports are prepared on him by the Probation Service.

Sinclair, 36, struck as his guest slept in a spare room at his threebedroomed terraced home in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

Teesside Crown Court heard that the 19-year-old woke from a drunken slumber to find Sinclair on top of her on a futon.

She had gone to the room with another woman and two children after a session of boozing and smoking cannabis joints.

During his evidence, Sinclair insisted the sexual intercourse last summer was consensual and that he did not instigate it.

He told the jury that the young woman began kissing him after he was beckoned into her room and sat on her bed.

Sinclair said he had tidied up and stripped to his boxer shorts as he got ready for bed when he heard someone call out “Baz”.

He told the jury: “I went to investigate.

I sat on the end of the bed because I felt a little bit tired.

I lay back. She turned around and kissed me on the lips.”

Sinclair said the other guest – also on the futon – woke up as the pair were having sex, and asked what they were doing.

He said he replied “nowt”, and told the court: “I felt a bit embarrassed about it, her catching us and looking, so I put my boxers back on and walked out of the room.”

Under cross-examination from Shaun Dodds, Sinclair could not explain why he did not invite his guest into his room if sex had been consensual.

He admitted having a cocktail of drink – lager and vodka – and drugs in his system, but denied behaving in a way he would not normally.

Mr Dodds branded as “nonsense”

the claim that someone called him into the room and said Sinclair had not told the police about that.

“You are lying to this jury because you knew full well you went into that room and the people in there were asleep,” he said.

“You know full well that you stripped off and went into that room knowing they were asleep because you were wanting sex, weren’t you?”

Sinclair, of Osric Place, Newton Aycliffe, replied: “No.”

Judge Les Spittle remanded Sinclair in custody, and said: “An assessment needs to be made of the risk he poses.”

The jury took two-and-a-half hours of deliberating before returning its unanimous verdict yesterday afternoon.