A FEMALE student appeared “surprised” on realising she was not alone in bed, when she was awoken by the knocking of a housemate at her bedroom door, a court heard.

The undergraduate was concerned for the woman as she had returned to their shared home in Durham apparently worse the wear for drink in the early hours of Tuesday June 2, last year.

Durham Crown Court was told the woman was escorted home by the host of a party at another student house in the city, as he was worried about her emotional and drunken condition.

Once back at her home her housemate said she spoke only once coherently, in reply to him asking if she had enjoyed herself at the party, before she lay on the sofa and went to sleep.

Several minutes later fellow student Alistair Cooke, who the woman had earlier gone with to the party, walked in, and said he was checking her condition, but would not be staying.

But, when the housemate came down to check on the woman the following morning, he said he was surprised to see she was no longer on the sofa.

He said he knocked at the door of her downstairs bedroom and when he looked in, she seemed to suddenly awaken.

The housemate said he was surprised to see there appeared to be someone else in the bed, as did the woman when she awoke.

Asked by prosecution barrister Shaun Dodds about her reaction, the now ex-student confirmed she appeared, “really confused and surprised”.

“Within a few seconds of waking she seemed to realise there was someone else in the bed.”

The housemate said she seemed embarrassed and, asked if anyone else was there, she said “no”, even though there appeared to be a figure under the duvet.

He said he then went back to his room upstairs and did not see who was in the woman’s room, although it later emerged it had been Mr Cooke.

The housemate said in the following days he asked her what had taken place that night, and she replied: “Isn’t it obvious?”

He said in further conversation he asked her if what took place was, “without your consent?”

Asked for her response, the now former housemate told the court: “She said ‘yes’ and she was very upset, but she didn’t want to talk any more about it, so I didn’t push it.”

But he said by Sunday, June 7 he received a text message from her saying she was at Durham Police Station, where she made a report that she had been raped by Mr Cooke, five days earlier.

Mr Cooke, 22, of Truro in Cornwall, denies three counts of rape.

The trial continues next week.