A YOUNG woman who turned to prostitution in a desperate move to fund her heroin addiction was allegedly raped by a "customer", a court has heard.

A jury heard claims that Andrew Fardella picked her up in a Mercedes, having agreed a £20 price, and drove to the Pleasington area of Blackburn.

There he is said to have had sex with the woman, without her consent and while holding a cheese knife close to her face.

When later interviewed by police, he maintained it had not been rape, but a transaction between a customer and a prostitute.

Fardella, 33, of Abraham Street, Blackburn, denies a charge of raping the woman in the early hours of April 17th last year.

At the start of a Preston Crown Court trial, the prosecution said the fact that the complainant was a prostitute did not mean she did not have the same protection as any other woman, in law.

The prosecution say sex occured without a condom and afterwards that Fardella was verbally abusive.

After Fardella was arrested and taken to a police station, he said "I have had intercourse with her, but not rape."

He maintained he paid the woman £20 for sex and was dropping her off afterwards when approached by the police.

He said the knife, which was recovered, had been used to cut speaker wire. He stated he took the knife out before sex and placed it on the dashboard as it was annoying him in his pocket.

(Proceeding)