A WOMAN was gagged and bound with dressing gown cords before being raped at a Bournemouth flat, a court heard yesterday.

The woman, who cannot be identified, alleges that she was tied up before being sexually assaulted on a number of occasions by Thomas Old.

Jurors were told by prosecutor Adam Feest that the defendant had "ignored" the woman's "cries and screams" before shoving a sock in her mouth and gagging her further with a cord believed to have come from his white dressing gown.

Mr Feest added that "even in her distress" the woman had remembered the colour of the cord as it was covered with "blood from her damaged lips and mouth".

Following this alleged rape, prosecutors claim the woman was left tied and gagged for around two hours while Old disappeared to watch television.

A police interview with the complainant was screened to jurors on the first day of a trial at Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday.

During the interview, she told an officer that when the defendant had returned to the bedroom where she lay, he asked her if she had "calmed down" before helping her walk to the toilet as she was very "weak".

She alleged that she had suffered a number of injuries, including to her wrists and ankles, as well as tenderness to her cheeks.

It was claimed that she also sustained injuries to her scalp after Old "dragged" her by the hair.

Asked by the officer if she had consented to "any part" of the alleged incident, the woman replied: "No."

She added that "kicking and screaming made absolutely no difference because my strength compared to his just didn't make any difference at all."

The defendant, 24, formerly of Shaftesbury Road in Queens Park, denies five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, one of common assault, three of rape, one of attempted rape, one of false imprisonment and one of assault by penetration.

The court was told that Old has a conviction for an "attack" on another woman, which took place "over the course of a number of hours" in November 2013.

The defendant admitted a single charge before a judge last year.

Mr Feest said the victim had been "tied up with gaffer tape having been stripped naked, her hands were bound together and she was gagged."

He added that Old had then "strangled her to the point of unconsciousness and beyond a number of times".

"We don't introduce this to cause undue prejudice against this defendant - just because he has a conviction does not, of course, mean that he is guilty of these offences," the prosecutor said.

However, he added that the conviction may show that the defendant has a "propensity for acts of this kind [such as] tying someone up."

The trial continues.