A HALF-NAKED woman was forced to take refuge by hiding in a wheelie-bin after a drunken sex session turned violent, a court heard yesterday.

The terrified 25-year-old, wearing only a T-shirt, cowered in the back yard bin at 1am as her attacker David Holmes, 47, searched for her with his dog.

Finally, she vaulted a wall to safety and contacted the police to say she had been raped by Holmes at his home in Ferryhill, County Durham. Officers discovered a number of bite marks on her body.

Holmes claimed that they had consensual sex on his sofa and his bed, said Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, and the bite injuries had been sustained during foreplay.

He agreed he lost his temper and punched her before she ran from the house wearing only a T-shirt, back to front. He threw the rest of her clothes into the street, Teesside Crown Court was told.

He denied rape and the Crown offered no evidence when the five-day trial was due to start yesterday. The charge was left on the court file after he pleaded guilty to unlawfully wounding her.

Rod Hunt, defending said: "There is a very drunken, confused sexual encounter here."

Judge Michael Taylor told Holmes: "It seems that there was some preliminary sexual activity between the two of you, whether consensual or not, one will never know. But a man beating up a woman in his house against her will and then leaving her to flee in a partially naked state, I cannot overlook."

Holmes, of Kelvin Street, Ferryhill, was jailed for 21 months after he admitted the incident last September.