A TERRIFIED teenager fled barefoot in the middle of the night dressed in pyjamas after she was sexually assaulted by a 67-year-old man in his home, it was alleged yesterday.

Newcastle Crown Court was told that Matziano Annunziata also plied another youngster with wine before launching a similar attack, and that he assaulted a total of three young girls at home in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, between January and February.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told how the defendant allowed the youngsters to stay up late watching horror movies before he attacked while they slept.

Mr Dodds said: "One girl wakes up on this occasion and feels someone lying behind her, lying on the camp bed. There is a leg over hers. It was the defendant. He put his hand to her face and over her mouth and told her to be quiet."

The court heard how Annunziata groped the girl as she struggled out of bed.

Mr Dodds said: "She was eventually able to get up and out of the bed still with her pyjamas on. She ran downstairs, picked up her bag and ran along the street, still in her pyjamas and bare feet, eventually getting to her parents' house."

Mr Annunziata, who denied three charges of indecent assault, dismissed the claims as fantasising.

He said that he had had a few rows with the girls in the past which might have prompted them to make up the tales.

The trial continues.