A TEENAGER was grabbed from behind, dragged into a park and raped during a "terrifying attack" in Southampton, a court heard.

The 18-year-old university student was subjected to the attack as she walked near Riverside Park, a jury heard.

Jury members also heard how the teenager was strangled and flickered in and out of conciousness during the incident, in which she "thought she was going to die".

The man accused of raping and assaulting her, Jozef Janczura, 34, denies any involvement.

During the opening of his trial, at Southampton Crown Court, prosecutor Martyn Booth said how neither the Crown Prosecution Service, nor Janczura's defence team, denied that the victim was raped in the incident, on December 2 last year.

The court heard that Janczura denied being the one who carried out the attack.

But Mr Booth told the jury that DNA found on the victim's body matched that of Janczura's - saying the chances of the DNA swabs being left by someone other than the defendant or someone unrelated to him amounted "to odds of a billion to one".

He added: "To put that into context that is 1,000 million to one.

"It is frankly difficult to imagine longer odds even if you tried."

Mr Booth said the DNA examined included blood, allegedly from the defendant, on the jumper the victim was wearing at the time of the attack.

He told jury members that the incident had taken place around 11.50pm on December 2, shortly after the victim had left a friend's halls of residence to "get some fresh air".

He said the victim was walking alone on Woodmill Lane, near to Riverside Park, when she was grabbed from behind by a man, who she had previously thought was following her.

Mr Booth said: "She was walking down that path listening to music and all of a sudden she was attacked from behind.

"The man grabbed her, he had an arm around her neck and with the other dragged her off the pathway into the park.

"She tried to fight back her attacker but he was able to overpower her and he forced her to the floor.

"She described the man as being on top of her while she was on the floor and the man strangling her to the point she was in and out of consciousness, in that fuzzy state of mind."

He added: "This was a terrifying incident, one in which she genuinely thought she was going to die."

Mr Booth said CCTV footage from the area appeared to show Janczura, of Laburnum Road, Southampton, walking in the area of the attack.

Janczura denies one allegation of rape and one allegation of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).

The trial continues.