By Staff Reporter

Last updated 11:56, Tuesday, 29 April 2008

A DRUNKEN teenager was raped in woods near a village church, a jury heard.

Not guilty: Edward Andrew Stobart, 19, of Houghton

The 15-year-old was also subjected to two other serious sex attacks, Carlisle crown court was told yesterday.

Edward Andrew Stobart, 19, of Houghton, near Carlisle, denies all charges, saying no sexual activity took place.

Opening the case for the prosecution, barrister Tim Evans said that on the day of the incident the teenager had spent time in a local park, drinking with friends.

The girl was raped, said Mr Evans, after she went for a walk alone with the defendant. At the time, the girl was insensibly drunk and physically incapable of escaping the situation, said Mr Evans.

The teenage girl, whose identity is protected by law, gave evidence by videolink at Carlisle Crown Court.

She told the court that on the day of the alleged incident she drank about one-and-a-half bottles of White Lightning cider and woke up the next morning with no memory – but in pain.

The incident is alleged to have taken place in Houghton on April 13 last year. She had been drinking with friends, first in a park and later in a friend’s garage listening to music.

She told the court: “We went to the field. I must have drunk a lot. I can’t remember coming out of the garage. I remember being at the church on the ground against this log. He did something. I retched.

“I was too weak to do anything about it. I couldn’t move. I remember looking up and seeing a tree with bright green leaves on it.”

Mr Evans said: “She was in no fit state to be doing anything other than, one would hope, be looked after by friends. She was so drunk she wet herself.

“Can he, on his own admission taking her for a walk to sober up, believe she was in a fit state to consent?”

He said that her falling over drunk could explain outer bruises but not the internal injuries found by medical examination.

Mr Evans said that one of the teenagers in the park had thrown a brick which hit the girl on the forehead.

A witness told the court by videolink she had seen the girl walking along the road that evening covered from top to toe in mud. She was with Stobart.

The trial continues today.