A RAPE suspect had “an enormous” amount to drink and took a cocktail of drugs before he allegedly attacked a woman walking home from a fancy dress night out.

A court heard yesterday that Craig Campbell had downed a two-litre bottle of cheap wine, at least 12 bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale with whisky chasers and a lager.

The 22-year-old told a jury that he also smoked at least three cannabis joints, and took two ecstasy tablets, four valium pills and some LSD in a rave club.

He said that on a scale of one to ten of drunkenness, he was eight or nine when he arrived back in his home town of Hartlepool after a night out in Newcastle on March 21.

Despite having no memory of the incident when he was arrested less than two weeks later, he told the Teesside Crown Court jury yesterday that he now remembers everything that happened.

Mr Campbell said he had consensual sexual contact with the woman after he began talking to her following a chance meeting in Rossmere Way as they both walked home. He told the jury that he “snapped” after arguing with her about her boyfriend, “flung her about” punched her to the ground and ripped off her clothes.

The court heard that her clothes were thrown over a fence into a playing field, and the alleged victim fled naked to a nearby house to find help.

Mr Campbell said he tried to go to her aid himself because he felt bad about what he had done, but ran home when the woman started crying.

Residents from the street also gave evidence yesterday, including Stephen Hadfield, whose home the alleged victim ran to and collapsed outside.

Mr Hadfield said he was woken by a noise, looked from his bedroom window and saw she was curled up on his drive.

He said: “She looked as if she had given up, like she had lost all fight to get away.”

Mr Campbell, of Ormesby Road, denies rape and assault by penetration, and will be cross-examined by Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, when the trial resumes this morning.