A 39-year-old woman from Florida told a Supreme Court jury yesterday that she was raped while visiting the Island in April by another visitor after a night of drinking.

The alleged victim said yesterday that she met the 38-year-old man accused of raping her ? who cannot be named for legal reasons ? at the Swizzle Inn on April 3, 2005, where she had been enjoying some dinner and rum swizzle with the friend she was visiting.

She said the candle at her table had blown out and she asked the defendant ? who was sitting at the next table but appeared to be leaving ? if she could have his candle.

The man came over to the table and lit the candle and then he and his friend joined the two women.

The defendant, who is from New Jersey, told them that he was in Bermuda interviewing for a job.

The men asked the women if they knew where the Beach bar was and the alleged victim?s local friend told them.

She said the men offered to buy them drinks if they could direct them to the bar.

At this point, the victim said that she and her friend had drank three small pitchers of rum swizzle.

She said the defendant and his friend followed them on rental scooters to the bar.

She admitted that she had three or four Miller Lites inside the bar and a shot, saying: ?At a certain point, I did feel intoxicated.?

She told the jury that she remembered leaving the bar around 1 a.m. but not getting into her friend?s car.

Once back at her friend?s home, she went to bed but awoke at roughly 4 a.m. to find the defendant on top of her.

?I had been vaginally penetrated and I knew I was being raped and I started to fight,? she said.

?At that point I was doing everything I could to get him off of me.?

She said she got up and put her clothes on. Then went to the balcony to confront the defendant in front of her friends. She said she was angry and hyperventilating.

?At that point I tried to hit him as hard as I could as many times as I could in his face,? she said.

?That man was just in my room on top of me and he had no right to do what he did to me,? she told her friends.

Her friend asked the men to leave and then took the woman to the hospital where the Police were called and she made a report.

During cross examination, defence lawyer Richard Horseman put it to the victim that the sex was consensual because she initiated it.

He suggested that she came to the doorway of the bathroom in her bra and panties and approached the defendant and even tried to take down his pants.

He suggested to her that she was upset and called it rape because the sex lasted only a few minutes.

Mr. Horseman asked: ?You?re accusing him of coming in your room, with your friend in the next room six feet away, to rape you? A family man with three kids who has never been in trouble??

The court also heard from the victim?s friend yesterday who said that she had invited the men back to the house to socialise.

She said that when they left the Beach bar, the men helped the victim to the car because she was extremely intoxicated.

When they got to the house, the victim went right to bed and the rest of them went into the living room to have a drink and listen to music, she said.

The friend said she checked on the alleged victim three or four times and found her asleep every time.

When the victim eventually came out of the room, her friend said she thought she was sleepwalking.

She said that the victim was hysterical and started pushing the defendant and accusing him of raping her.

The witness said that she and another friend took the victim to the bedroom to calm her down and noticed that the mattress was coming off the bed and the box spring was showing.

She said that she asked the men to leave and got the victim ready to go to the hospital.

The trial continues today in Supreme Court.