A six-year-old girl was snatched from her bath, kidnapped and raped before being dumped naked and terrified in an alley, a court heard.
Defendant Peter Voisey (37), of Blyth, Northumberland, denies abducting, raping and sexually assaulting the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Prosecutor James Goss QC told the jury at Newcastle Crown Court: "At about 6.50pm a man entered the bathroom, told her to be quiet or he would hurt her, lifted her out of the bath, put his hand over her mouth, carried her to a car outside and drove off. After a short time, he stopped and sexually assaulted her. He did this twice."
He continued: "Having done what he wanted to do to her, he drove her to a back lane about 300 metres from her home, where he left her, still naked, telling her to face the wall."
Mr Goss said local resident Geoffrey Brown, whose house backed on to the lane where the girl was dumped, investigated the noise of a child's cries, and found her in the unlit lane.
Mr Brown and his wife saw she had blood on her legs and put her in a dressing gown.
Mr Goss said no one saw the girl being taken, where she was driven or what happened to her in the 20 minutes she was taken. "Only she and her kidnapper know that," he said.
But she was able to give details about the incident and the man responsible, who was unknown to her, and the car in which she was carried.
Mr Voisey denies the charges.