A single mother was raped in her own home during a terrifying 16-hour sex ordeal after being visited by a man she met through a telephone chat line.The 27-year-old told a court yesterday that she was raped in Lowestoft in February after letting a man who she had never met in person into her home.

A single mother was raped in her own home during a terrifying 16-hour sex ordeal after being visited by a man she met through a telephone chat line.

The 27-year-old told a court yesterday that she was raped in Lowestoft in February after letting a man who she had never met in person into her home.

Andrew Cole, of Colchester in Essex, first got to know the victim after they both called a telephone chat line and they then exchanged calls and text messages for nearly eight months before meeting face to face in February.

Cole denies the charges of rape, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, assault by penetration, assault causing actual bodily harm and common assault.

Stephen Dyble, prosecuting, told the court that Cole sent a text message to the victim - who cannot be named for legal reasons - on February 16 saying that he wanted to meet her.

The victim, who lives in Lowestoft, agreed for him to visit and he travelled from Colchester by taxi, arriving in Lowestoft at about 4am on Sunday 17.

Giving evidence in Ipswich Crown Court from behind a screen, the woman said yesterday that she had been exchanging sexual text messages and telephone calls with Cole, 31, for several months, sometimes speaking to him two or three times a week.

She said that she had consensual sex with him shortly after he arrived in Lowestoft but was later raped and assaulted when Cole spent about 16 hours in her house.

She told the court that when Cole, of Balantyne Drive in Colchester, arrived in the early hours of the Sunday morning she let him into her house but soon noticed that he was acting strangely - he was aggressive and was taking various tablets, which he told her were for a mental health problem.

By midday on Sunday, Cole's behaviour had grown increasingly erratic. She said: “He was talking to himself and he had me thinking that he was talking to other people in the room but there was nobody there. He was getting really irate.”

She said that Cole grabbed and bit her, leaving her covered in bruises and teeth marks, and that he poured a can of drink over her head, hit her with a bunch of flowers and poured a hot drink on her.

She said he urinated on her living room floor, into glasses of drink and on her sofa and bedding.

She told the court that she was raped in her hallway on the Sunday afternoon. She consented to sex “to a point” but asked Cole to stop when he started hurting her.

“I told him he was being too rough, that it was hurting and asked him to stop. He seemed to get a buzz out of the fact that I asked him to stop and got rougher,” she said. “I was trying to get away from him but he had such a grip on my hair that I was getting held back.”

At about 10pm on the Sunday, she left the house and asked a neighbour to call the police. She told the court that she had not left the house earlier in the day because she was scared, but decided to alert police when Cole started throwing items around the house.

“I just wanted him gone but he was not going. He was smashing up my kitchen and I knew it was the only chance I was going to get to get away,” she said.

She added: “I was so scared. I kept feeling like I needed to help him and he made me feel like it was my fault. I didn't really want him in my house any more because he made me feel unsafe. It was all a bit bizarre for me.”

Mr Dyble told the court that although Cole has suffered from manic depression and hypermania for several years and takes prescribed medication, his illness will not prevent him from being criminally responsible for his behaviour.

Cole yesterday admitted causing criminal damage by throwing items around the victim's kitchen and urinating on her carpets, sofa and bedding.

The trial continues.