A MAN drugged a 21-year-old woman on a train then took photographs of her private parts, a court was told yesterday.

Teesside Crown Court heard that police officers who arrested Trevor Tarirah at Darlington railway station discovered details of an Internet competition that involved obtaining obscene pictures of women.

Deborah Sherwin, prosecuting, said the Crown had evidence that the defendant exchanged correspondence with a man in Internet chatrooms in the US.

She said they were "holding some kind of competition" to find the best picture of female genitalia.

The court heard that Mr Tarirah, from Reading, Berkshire, drugged the woman by spiking her drink.

After he was arrested, police found other pictures of female genitalia on his camera and computer.

Mr Tarirah, 31, denies sexual assault and two charges of voyeurism, along with a theft offence.

The court heard that the 21-year-old victim remembered nothing of the alleged attack in toilets on a Virgin train.

She was on her way to visit her boyfriend, a soldier based at Catterick, North Yorkshire, when the incident happened on December 3, 2004.

Mr Tarirah, who is originally from Zimbabwe, sat across from the woman, having got on the train at Reading.

He began chatting to her and produced a laptop computer and a digital camera, which he used to take a picture of her.

Miss Sherwin said the defendant gave his name as Terry and said he was a cancer specialist, based in New York, who had treated the mother of rapper Jay-Z. This was all lies, she said.

Later in the journey, he asked the woman if she wanted a drink.

When she said yes, he returned with an open can of cola, which she drank.

It was from this point that the alleged victim could remember nothing of what happened until she came round in a police station in Darlington.

Miss Sherwin suggested Mr Tarirah could have spiked her drink with the drugs GHB or Rohypnol.

Although neither was found in her blood, Miss Sherwin said GHB could leave the bloodstream without trace within hours and said the woman's behaviour was consistent with its effects.

Witnesses said Mr Tarirah was seemingly plying the woman with drink and was seen with bottles of vodka and whisky.

Miss Sherwin said passenger Sharon Mee, who sat next to the defendant, described how the woman became more and more intoxicated and appeared to be flirting with Mr Tarirah, putting her arms round his neck and kissing him.

The pair disappeared to the toilet for ten to 15 minutes and went again a second time, but when the woman returned she looked agitated and pushed the defendant away. She swore and spat at him.

Staff became concerned at the behaviour of the woman, who was shouting loudly and causing a scene.

She was arrested with the help of an off-duty police officer who had been on the train, when it arrived in Darlington.

Mr Tarirah, of Holmes Road, Earley, Reading, was arrested after the woman's mobile phone and credit card were found on him.

Miss Sherwin said police seized the defendant's camera and found two pictures of the complainant's private parts.

She said: "It is the Crown's case that by the time these pictures were taken, she was not in a position to give any kind of sensible consent."

When the woman was examined by doctors, traces of cannabis were found in her blood and she was two-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit. The trial continues.