A WOMAN with mental health problems was raped by two men in a Worcester flat after being terrified by shooting threats, a jury was told.

The victim missed her train home to Kidderminster and was looking for a place to stay the night when she was befriended by John Ayres as she wandered the city streets.

He took her to the flat in Lowesmoor where other occupants were drinking and smoking cannabis.

But she was then subjected “to a campaign of bullying” which involved a fake gun being produced by Anthony Nurse, said Anthony Potter, prosecuting.

Nurse allegedly pointed the pistol at her, demanding sex.When she refused, he dragged another woman off her seat on to the floor and threatened to shoot her and her child, Worcester Crown Court was told.

Mr Potter said “the dramatic act” forced the victim to go upstairs with Nurse, where he made her perform a sex act on him.

The act was witnessed by other occupants after they congregated round a peephole in the bedroom door.

Ayres appeared to comfort her before making her perform the same act on him too, the jury heard.

Mr Potter said: “They forced themselves on this woman in a bid to satisfy their own lust, disregarding her reluctance and using humiliation and bullying to get what they wanted.”

Ayres, aged 20, of Hylton Road, Worcester, and 30-year-old Nurse, of Widemarsh Court, Manlydixon Drive, Enfield, Essex, deny raping the woman on July 16, 2008.

Nurse also denies possession of an imitation firearm at the time of committing a rape offence.

The victim, who is in her 30s, had travelled to Worcester to see her son, who was being cared for.

But she was late, missed the meeting, and had a glass of wine at a pub to console herself.

She then walked to St Paul’s Hostel in Tallow Hill to see a friend and drank cider in the hostel’s grounds.

But when she went for her train she found her handbag and ticket missing and returned to St Paul’s to see if she could stay the night. She left in the early hours after an altercation before meeting up with Ayres, who was accompanied by another man.

Mr Potter said Nurse made threats to the woman not to reveal what had happened.

But she told a support worker in Kidderminster who alerted police.

Nurse claimed to officers that he had not been involved in any sexual act and denied having a gun.

Ayres accepted that he had sexual relations with the woman but insisted that she had agreed.

The trial continues.