A MAN accused of rape in York has been remanded in custody after he was refused bail by York magistrates.

Tomasz Szymon Bekierz, 32, from York, was charged with raping a teenage girl near the River Ouse in York city-centre.

He will attend a preliminary hearing at York Crown Court on September 1.

Police cordoned off a stretch of Dame Judi Dench Walk alongside the Ouse, near Lendal Bridge and Museum Gardens, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

It is alleged a man approached two teenage girls in McDonald's in Blake Street at around 1.30am on Sunday then followed them to benches outside an entrance to the Museum Gardens, where it is claimed he attacked one of them.