A man has denied having sex with a young mother who said she woke up in her home to find him raping her.

Terence Clark, 41, is accused of attacking the woman after turning up at her house looking for a party in the early hours of October 11, 1999.

The woman, who cannot be named, said Mr Clark was having sex with her when she woke up on her sofa after a night out with her boyfriend.

But Clark told Newcastle Crown Court yesterday that he had too much to drink.

He said: "We had some chit chat. We kissed and touched each other, but I could not do anything else."

The court had heard that, during his first police interview, Mr Clark admitted having sex with the woman.

But yesterday he told the court he had said that because he could not remember clearly what had happened. He said that after he pulled himself together he realised they had not actually had sex, but had been intimate.

Robert Woodcock, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court how Mr Clark went to the woman's home, after being escorted from his girlfriend's house by the police following a row, despite hardly knowing her.

Mr Clark of Hendon Valley Court, Hendon, Sunderland, denies rape.

The trial continues.