THE neighbour of an alleged rape victim has told how he heard shouts through his ceiling.

Kevin Trousdale said he was watching television in his room at a hostel in York when he heard John Terence Ellison having sex with a woman in another room.

He told York Crown Court he heard the woman scream “stop it, it hurts”, during the incident on November 23, 2012, and she had later told him she had been forced to have sex in a way she did not want.

Mr Trousdale said: “She sounded a bit distressed.

“It didn’t sound normal.

“John had been coming round for a few weeks and they’d been making love and it never sounded like that. It didn’t sound normal.”

Mr Trousdale said the victim told him three days later that she had been assaulted, and she had claimed Ellison banged her head during the alleged attack, causing scratches and bruising.

The jury was also told the alleged victim had a history of mentalhealth issues, and had spoken to mental-health services several times in the days leading up to the alleged attack, including on the day itself.

However both prosecution and defence accepted psychiatrists’ reports which said she had “no abnormality of mental state during this period”.

The court further heard that during police interview, Ellison said he did have sex with the victim on the day in question, but it was consensual.

He also told officers he had not hit the woman during intercourse, but admitted pulling her hair, and said they had also had sex on a number of previous occasions.

Ellison, 45, of no fixed address, denies rape.

The trial continues.