A woman sent a text message saying “help” moments after she was allegedly raped by a man, a jury has heard.

Robert Woods, 47, has gone on trial at Carlisle Crown Court.

He denies two charges which allege that he both raped and sexually assaulted the woman.

On day one of his trial, jurors watched a recording of an interview the woman gave to police after the alleged incident.

She told an officer how she and Woods were together on July 9. They began kissing.

“I was fine. I consented to that,” she said. “But then, when he was kissing me, he started getting a bit rough. He grabbed the back of my hair. I said, ‘You are hurting. Don’t – get off’.”

The woman said she pushed away Woods, who stood up and “took all his clothes off”.

He grabbed her, she said, adding: “The whole time I just kept saying to him, ‘You are hurting me, please stop’.”

Eventually, she stated, Woods did stop. As he stayed with the woman for 15 minutes, she sent texts to another male which read “help” and “now”.

During this time Woods allegedly “verbally abused and insulted” the female. “What he done was horrible. It was that (following) 15 minutes that petrified the life out of me.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do next.”

After Woods left, she phoned a friend in a “hysterical” state, saying: “He has raped me, he has raped me’.”

But when Woods, of Thomlinson Avenue, Carlisle, was questioned by police he claimed she engaged in sexual activity within five minutes of them being together and had been a “willing participant”.

Opening the case, prosecutor Kim Whittlestone said to jurors: “The issue in this case is one of consent.”

The trial continues.