A CHEF at the world-famous Ivy restaurant tried to rape a Liverpool woman in a stairwell, leaving her fearing for her life.

The 26-year-old said she pleaded with Adam Traore to stop as he knocked her to the ground.

She escaped from him after finding ‘strength from nowhere’ to fend him off and jump over a wall to safety, the Old Bailey was told.

Traore, 26, a chef de parti at the The Ivy, is accused of luring the woman back to a block of flats in east London after meeting her in a nightclub.

He tried to rape her then sexually assaulted her again when she tried to escape, it is claimed.

Traore had met the woman in the early hours of February 3 this year at Club 19 in Plais-tow, east London, and be-friended her when her cousin left without her.

The court heard he tricked the woman in to coming with him to Enterprise House, Barking, in the early hours after claiming her cousin would be waiting there. He walked her to the sixth floor then demanded sex because he had bought her a drink.

The woman gave evidence from behind a screen to shield her from the dock.

The jury then watched a video of a police interview recorded just hours after her ordeal in which she said: 'He tried to kiss me. He pushed himself on to me. I fell to the floor and he had a bottle of drink and it broke.

“He came on top of me and said: ‘Do you think I'm going to let you go this easily, do you know how much I've spent on you tonight’. I said ‘Please don't do this to me’. He pulled his hand across my mouth.”

The woman struggled free and began running down the stairs, but her attacker managed to catch up with her and dragged her outside.

“He was pulling my pants down. He was pushing himself on me. He stamped on my face, pulling my hair out. I was screaming ‘help anyone please’.” The woman escaped again, but was caught again as she ran towards a row of houses.

She said her attacker looked ‘evil’ as he forced her to the floor once again.

“He had paid for a cab and bought me a £3.50 drink and he wanted something off me. He was going to rape me. He was so violent. I thought he was going to kill me.”

After a third scuffle she managed to push him off and vaulted a wall to knock at a house to raise the alarm.

The court heard that later that day Traore was sent home by executive chef Alan Bird after apparently turning up drunk.

A beer can with Traore's DNA on it was found inside, next to a smashed bottle of Smirnoff Ice vodka on the sixth floor, it is claimed.

Traore, of Sutton Court Road, Plaistow, east London, denies one count of attempted rape and two counts of sexual assault.

The trial continues.