AN 18-year-old Oxford man has been accused of raping a woman in a playground while two other men watched.

Shkelezen Elezi, of Coleridge Close, Cowley, denies attacking the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Christmas Eve, 2006.

Jurors at Oxford Crown Court yesterday heard the woman was dragged from Barns Road, Cowley, into an alleyway towards a playground, where the incident is alleged to have taken place.

Prosecutor Peter Coombe told the court she resisted as one of the men tried to pull her trousers off, and screamed "stop" several times, telling the man he was hurting her.

The two other men were not involved in the attack, but stood watching, Mr Coombe said.

After the alleged attack, the men fled from the scene and another man found the woman crying in Barns Road, the court heard.

He called the police and the tape recording of the conversation was played to the court, in which the woman could be heard telling the officer how the man had refused to stop forcing himself on her.

When the victim was later examined by a police doctor, she had internal injuries as well as bruising on her thighs and lower legs.

The court heard the woman had not met the defendant before the night of the alleged incident.

Mr Coombe said she had been trying to get hold of a friend on Christmas Eve, but when she dialled her friend's number a man who called himself 'Zenny' - the defendant's nickname - answered the phone.

Mr Coombe said the woman was told by the defendant that he knew where her friend was and he was going to meet her later that evening.

Mr Coombe said the woman met 'Zenny' in the hope of finding her friend and the two of them, together with two other men, walked towards Barns Road. She was then dragged into the alleyway.

Mr Coombe told the jury Elezi denied having sex with the woman against her will. Instead, he said, Elezi said that after speaking on the phone several times with the woman, she told him to meet her and not wear any underwear.

He says they went to a bus stop where the woman sat on his lap and they began kissing. He says she then asked him for sex and it was "completely consensual".

The case continues.