A young man raped a student on a muddy pathway after he struck her several times in the face with a stone, a jury was told.

The Leeds University student, then 18, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was helped into a taxi by her attacker as she left a nightclub to return to her halls of residence.

Andrew Garbutt, 18, of Vernon Road, Liversedge, has denied raping the woman in the early hours of Tuesday, February 5, 2002.

Prosecutor Richard Mansell said that on February 4, the woman and her friends had a few drinks at home before entering the Bamboo nightclub in Leeds at about 11pm.

At 2.30am she and her friends left the club. She stumbled down steps and was helped by two young men - one of whom wore a hooded top and whom the woman believed was Garbutt.

Mr Mansell said the man took her to a taxi, got in with her and told her he was a student. She asked him to wait for her friends but he directed the taxi to leave.

When the taxi stopped, the woman did not recognise the area, which Mr Mansell said was Weetwood Lane. Garbutt directed the woman to go down a nearby muddy path - the wrong direction for her to get home.

"He wanted to put her in a dark, unsafe area away from the road and he intended to assault and rape her," said Mr Mansell.

The woman began to walk down the path and noticed the defendant following her.

"All of a sudden he crept up behind her, she was struck to the top of her head or forehead area and she turned around to see the defendant in front of her," Mr Mansell told the jury.

Garbutt struck her several times in the face with a stone and she fell and momentarily lost consciousness. When she came round, she was lying on her back with her clothing disturbed, said Mr Mansell.

He said she was then raped by Garbutt, who told her to call him Daniel during her ordeal.

After the attack he told the woman: "I haven't raped you, you know." He also rifled through her handbag.

Garbutt was arrested in May last year. Mr Mansell said he told police he saw the woman, offered to walk her home and suggested they go back to his friend's house. She asked him if he meant for sex and said she preferred it outside.

He said he took her to the grounds of Moorlands School where they had consensual sex. He then walked her back to Weetwood Lane and saw her walk off towards her halls of residence. He went to his parents' house in Foxhill Court, Weetwood, where took his father's car and drove back to the roundabout to check she had gone home.

Mr Mansell said Garbutt told police in the interview: "She called me Daniel during the course of sex and I had to correct her a couple of times and tell her my name's Andrew."

The trial continues.