A 20-year-old woman had a knife held to her throat and was told her newborn baby would be killed, a rape trial has heard.
The woman, who is Lithuanian, was giving evidence on the opening day of the trial at the Central Criminal Court, currently sitting in Limerick.
A jury heard the alleged victim was raped in her Limerick apartment on the night of September 18th, 2002, just a month after her daughter was born.
The accused man, a 36-year-old Belarussian national, denies the charge and also denies threatening to kill or injure the young woman on the same date.
The woman told the court that she came to Limerick in 2002 and shortly after gave birth to a baby.
She lived in a flat in the city centre while her husband, a Nigerian national, was in Spain.
On the afternoon of September 18th last, she had dropped off her month-old baby daughter at a friend's flat as she planned to go shopping.
In the apartment complex, she met the accused man, whom she already knew, and she agreed to let him help her with the shopping, the court heard.
Later, she collected her child and the accused helped her with the buggy and the shopping bags as she walked to her own flat.
A few hours later, the accused man came back to her flat and after she let him in they chatted for a while, the court heard.
The accused tried to kiss her but she resisted.
She told him to leave but he started saying that she was "foolish to live with a black man" and made other comments about her "black baby".
He dragged her into a bedroom and pulled off her trousers and underwear. He returned with a knife which he held to her throat, the court heard.
At this point in her evidence, the woman broke down and Mr Justice Carney ordered a 10-minute recess.
When she resumed her evidence, she said the accused had threatened to kill her and her baby if she didn't "shut up". The accused then raped her, she said.
Her evidence is due to continue today.