A FATHER accused of raping a woman in a Merseyside cemetery led her away from another man who was following her.

The jury at Liverpool Crown Court was shown CCTV of an unidentified male during the trial of Vadims Holostovs.

The 31-year-old denies raping, sexually assaulting and attacking the 24-year-old woman after they met in Bakers Bar, in Southport.

The camera image captured a black-clothed man following the woman as she walked through the town’s streets at around 4am on November 20. The court watched footage taken outside the Scarisbrick Avenue nightspot which showed the victim smoking a cigarette.

The CCTV showed the man, whom police have never traced, making continual efforts to befriend the woman on her way home.

But, during the walk, Holostovs appeared, put his arm round the woman, whom he had chatted to and danced with earlier that night in Bakers Bar, and led her away.

The video revealed the defendant and the victim hugging and embracing on a number of occasions.

Eventually, the other man wandered off.

Around a mile from the bar, Holostovs and the woman entered a cemetery on Duke Street.

It is there it is alleged that he raped her.

The court has heard how the woman was strangled, attacked and knocked unconscious during her ordeal.