TWO teenage girls were ambushed by a sex attacker who attempted to rape them as they walked home late at night from a Basingstoke nightclub, a jury has been told.

Winchester Crown Court heard the man first attacked one girl and then, when her friend went to her aid, did exactly the same thing to the second girl.

Charles Gabb, prosecuting, said the 16-year-old girls had been walking home from Bud's Bar. He told the jury their attacker followed them from the nightclub and hid his face with his jumper before pouncing.

Just over 10 months before, Mr Gabb alleged the same man, again with his jumper pulled over his face, had indecently assaulted a 29-year-old woman after following her and her friend as they walked home from the same nightspot.

The prosecution claim the attacker is 24-year-old Michael Traynor, of no fixed address, who formerly lived at Kings Road, South Ham.

Mr Gabb told the jury the case is all about identity since Traynor denies he was the man involved in the incidents. Traynor has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting the 29-year-old woman in November 2000 and attempting to rape the 16-year-old girls on September 29 last year. He also denies two charges of indecently assaulting the girls.

The teenage girls were attacked as they walked through the West Ham Leisure Park. Mr Gabb said they had reached a section which "provides good camouflage for the ambush" when Traynor allegedly pounced.

In the other incident, the older woman told the jury that as she and her friend reached the junction of St Peter's Road and Charles Street, a man appeared "out of nowhere" and committed an indecent act. The woman said the man grabbed her before running off.

Mr Gabb told the jury the prosecution case centred on the jumper, which witnesses described as having a logo on it. It is thought to have been the worn by the man on both occasions.

He also told the court one of the 16-year-old girls, who had said she would remember the face of her attacker, had picked Traynor out at an identity parade.

The case continues.