A TRANSGENDER woman from Fordingbridge is accused of raping a teenage girl more than 10 years ago when she was a man.

Davina Ayrton was aged about 25 at the time of the alleged attack on the 15-year-old girl in the autumn of 2004.

Portsmouth Crown Court has heard that 34-year-old Ayrton, who was previously called David, is alleged to have raped the teenager, who had run away from home.

The jury was told that the incident happened in a garage in Portsmouth containing a sofa and two chairs where the ''frequent runaway'' would stay when hiding from her family.

The court heard that the schoolgirl claims she was raped while a friend and her boyfriend were asleep inside the garage.

The alleged victim told the court that she had shouted and sworn at the defendant, who had medium-length greasy brown hair at the time, in a bid to make him stop, but the two friends had not woken up.

She said she had ''only drunk a can and a half of Foster's'' and had a clear recollection of the events in the garage.

She added: ''I am fully aware of what happened in that garage.''

The court was told that alleged the victim made a complaint to police in December 2004 but had not assisted officers because she was ''anti-police'' at the time.

The friend told the court the alleged victim was at the time a ''vulnerable'' girl and added she was ''more mature but I think that was with her being in a vulnerable situation''.

She said on the night of the incident she was awoken by the alleged victim, who asked her and her boyfriend to ''get him out'' - referring to the alleged attacker.

She said: ''She had woken me up, screaming and crying and asking for help.''

She said her boyfriend then ''ejected'' the man alleged to be Ayrton, whom they had met for the first time that day, from the garage.

Chris Stopa, prosecuting, has told the court that Ayrton, who has learning difficulties, told a worker at the Heywood Sumner House care home in Fordingbridge, where she lives, about the incident in 2014.

Police then contacted the alleged victim, leading to the prosecution.

Ayrton denies one charge of rape between October and November 2004.

The trial continues.