An HIV positive asylum seeker raped a woman in her flat - forcing her to have unprotected sex, a court heard.

Nqobizitha Ngwenya pinned the woman's arms behind her back and pushed her into her bedroom before attacking her, a Bradford Crown Court jury was told. The Zimbabwian denies raping the 24-year-old at her home in the Bradford area on April 25 this year.

Prosecutor John Lodge told the jury yesterday that Ngwenya, 30, used the false name Maxwell Muchaneyo and lied about his immigration status to obtain work as a cleaner at a nursing home.

Mr Lodge told the court that Ngwenya, of Waverley Road, Great Horton, Bradford, was an asylum seeker without a work visa. He was widely known as "Maxwell".

Ngwenya has pleaded guilty to a separate charge of giving false details to obtain work by deception.

But he has denied rape on the grounds that the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, consented to sex.

Mr Lodge said Ngwenya had known since April 2003 that he was HIV positive.

Paul McWhinney, consultant physician at the Trinity Centre, Bradford, confirmed Nqwenya attended the clinic regularly. The doctor said Ngwenya was HIV positive and there was a risk of transmission.

Mr Lodge told the jury of six men and six women that the issue they had to consider on the rape charge was one of consent.

Giving evidence, the woman told the court that the defendant was previously a friend.

She had known him for almost two years by April this year and had slept with him once in 2005. She was living in a bedsit at that time and he had used a condom.

She said she did not know he was HIV positive.

On April 25 this year, she said, Ngwenya called at her flat at 7.40am to drop off 12 cases of lager for a party.

She said she was in her pyjamas and was showing him out when he seized her from behind.

"He grabbed me with my hands behind my back. He pushed me, forced me, into my bedroom. He pushed me on to the bed," she said.

"I was asking him what he was doing but he didn't reply. I was kicking and screaming for him to get off."

The woman said Ngwenya held her hands above her head and raped her.

Afterwards, she said, he threatened: "I haven't finished with you. I'll be back tonight to finish it off."

"I was in my bed crying my eyes out," she told the jury.

The woman's boyfriend at the time said she texted him saying: "He raped me." When he asked who, she replied: "Maxwell".

The boyfriend, who also cannot be identified for legal reasons, said he saw the defendant soon after the alleged rape.

"He turned to me and waved and he had a big grin on his face," he said.

The teenager said when he saw his girlfriend that evening she was "very shook up and quiet".

Ngwenya told police he arranged to have sex with the woman that morning.

She knew he was HIV positive but she said there was not time to look for a condom, he said.

He agreed doctors had told him he could pass on the HIV virus if he had unprotected sex.

But he said the woman pulled him towards him and urged him to have sex without a condom.

The trial continues.