A nightmare ordeal for two elderly women from the Westbury area began on June 3, 1999 when a man claiming to be a telephone engineer phoned them to arrange a visit to their home, a court heard.

The next day the two women, a 74-year-old and her 93-year-old mother, were threatened with a knife and tied up in an hour-long ordeal culminating in the repeated rape of the younger woman, the prosecution claimed.

At the opening of the case against Anthony Martin Joyce, 49, of Neville Close, Salisbury, at Bristol Crown Court on Wednesday, prosecution counsel Derwyn Hope told the jury the two women had been shopping at Sainsbury's in Frome and arrived home at about 1.30pm.

He said the doorbell rang about half an hour later and a man claiming to be a telephone engineer was allowed into the house.

Mr Hope said once inside, the man tricked the daughter into taking him into an upstairs room where he grabbed her from behind and produced a large carving knife, which he threatened to use if she screamed.

He tied her up and put a pillowcase over her head before going back downstairs where the 93-year-old was unaware of what was happening to her daughter.

The mother was taken to another room upstairs where she was tied up and her eyes covered with tape.

Mr Hope said the man then searched the house before coming back and taking the younger woman downstairs, where he had already turned an armchair upside down.

He tied her to the castors of the chair before twice raping her.

When the man finally left, the police were called and a massive investigation was launched, including a detailed examination of CCTV tapes from Sainsbury's.

Mr Hope said: "The entrance area is covered by a CCTV system. The video of that relevant time has been subsequently viewed and, about the time that the two ladies are seen entering, a male wearing a quite distinctive two-tone baseball cap is also seen."

The man at the supermarket seemed to be taking a close interest in the two elderly women.

Mr Hope said: "An expert has compared that video with holiday videos and photographs of the defendant and in his opinion there is a high possibility that the man in the baseball cap in the Sainsbury's video is this defendant."

He said that Joyce gave a DNA sample as part of the police inquiries into a white, K-registration Ford Sierra Sapphire car that was seen in the area at the time of the attack.

A fingertip from a pair of latex gloves was found at the scene and examined by a DNA expert.

Mr Hope said: "He thinks that this supplies extremely strong support for the assertion that this is the defendant's DNA."

Joyce has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, two of false imprisonment and one of burglary.

The case continues.