A teenage girl separated from her friends on a night out at Oceana in Watford was put in a taxi and driven to a muddy park 25 miles away, where she was raped by a stranger, a court heard on Tuesday.

The 17-year-old was standing outside the club in The Parade, cold and wet, with no money, phone or coat, when Arshad Arif approached her.

Hours later she was banging on an elderly couple's door in a strange town two counties away, with her tights hanging off and her knickers missing, desperately trying to escape her attacker.

Arif was identified after it emerged he had earlier allowed the schoolgirl to use his mobile phone to call her parents in the early hours of the morning - with her astute father noting down the number.

Her mother had got out of bed and set off to collect her from Watford but arrived too late.

The jury heard that forensic tests on a swab taken from the girl also revealed the presence of semen, which a DNA test showed was Arif's.

Abigail Husbands, prosecuting, told the jury: "At 5.11am in the morning of November 25 last year, her father received a terrible phone call from his daughter - the sort every parent dreads.

"She had been attacked.

"On November 24 she had met her closest friends at one of their parents' houses and had some food and wine, before going out into Watford."

The group went to a bar, before ending up at Oceana where they drank some more wine and shots of spirits.

Her friends last recalled seeing her at 1.50am and despite searching inside and out, could not find her.

"You will see on CCTV that having gone outside she then doesn't seem to be able to go back inside," said Ms Husbands.

"She had no coat, no bag, no money and no phone. It was raining. It was late November.

"She must have been feeling pretty desperate."

After being outside on her own for about an hour, during which she tried in vain to contact people by borrowing other people's phones, the girl was approached by Arif, of Belfast Avenue, Slough.

The jury watched footage showing them speaking briefly before he led her away, sometimes with his arm around her but her with her arms constantly crossed. They walked away from a taxi rank immediately outside the club and made their way across the town.

The prosecutor told the jury: "We know she must have borrowed the defendant's phone to make one call.

"At 3.10am her parents were woken up by a call to their landline. She said: 'Mum, it's me. I don't feel very well. I can't find the others. I want to come home. Can you come and get me?'"

Her mother set off but as she did, her daughter was getting into the taxi with the man she had only just met.

He spoke to the driver in a language she did not understand.

"The driver will say that initially the male and female were speaking to each other but after a while they were quiet," said Ms Husbands.

"When they got to a drop-off point that was in Slough - where the man wanted to go - the female said she didn't want to get out but the male took her with him."

The girl told police that once out of the taxi the man almost lifted her into nearby Salt Hill Park and after walking for several minutes they stopped at a muddy area.

"She was still cold, she was scared," said the prosecutor.

"At this point Mr Arif was threatening her. She was crying."

Jurors were told he then exposed himself and forced her to perform a sex act but he was angry because she was crying so much.

He then forced her down onto the ground, tore off her underwear and raped her, the prosecution alleged at Reading Crown Court.

When she finally escaped an elderly couple heard her screams for help and called the police.

The trial continues.