A young woman feared she was going to die when she was brutally raped in a city centre after a night out, a jury heard.

Lewes Crown Court was told the 21-year-old was only minutes away from her flat in Brighton when she was grabbed from behind and dragged into Stone Street, off Western Road, as she walked home from a nightclub.

The terrified woman tried to scream for help and struggle free, but her attacker put his hand over her mouth and threatened to kill her if she did not do as he ordered.

Her horrific ordeal only ended when two delivery drivers suspected she was in trouble and came to her rescue.

Eddy Biharanduka, 38, of Oriental Place, Brighton, denies rape.

The court heard the attack happened in the early hours of April 2 2005 as the woman walked home after spending the evening with friends at the Creation nightclub in West Street.

She told the jury she met Biharanduka when she walked past him as he was chatting to some people at a bus stop. She said when he smiled at her, she smiled back and she asked him for one of the luminous plastic necklaces he was wearing which are popular with clubbers.

The 21-year-old said Biharanduka asked for her telephone number but she refused to give it out as she had a boyfriend and began to walk off.

She claimed he then shouted after her: 'Oi, where are you going?' and followed her down a side street before grabbing her.

The woman said Biharanduka threw her against a wall, pushed her to the ground and put his hand over her mouth saying: "I am going to rape you now.

"Don't make a noise otherwise I will kill you."

The victim, giving evidence behind a screen, told the jury: "He was quite a big, strong man to me. I screamed for help. He grabbed my face and was holding my mouth so I wouldn't scream. He said he was going to kill me if I kept screaming.

"I tried to struggle so many times, I pushed myself off and he pushed me back down to the floor again. I tried to roll myself over to face the person because I was suffocating on the ground. I was punching and kicking to get him off me.

"I can't remember how long it went on for but for me it was a lifetime."

The woman claimed she told her attacker she was only 15 in the hope it would put him off raping her but her attempts to stop him failed.

She said: "I was out of breath, I was winded. I thought I was going to die."

Her ordeal ended when two men, Theo Cronin and Alistair Endean, came to help her.

When Mr Endean approached to ask if she was alright, Biharanduka allegedly told him to go away saying: "It's a boyfriend and girlfriend thing. It's none of your business."

The 21-year-old quickly got up off the ground and ran towards Mr Cronin where she threw her arms around him and told him she had been raped.

Lewes Crown Court heard the two men took the woman to a friend's home nearby before returning to Stone Street with a pal and surrounding Biharanduka until police arrived.

The trial continues.