The prime suspect in a "millennium rape" was arrested after police found him living rough on a cliff top, a jury heard.

Paul Reynolds, 35, was apprehended at Roedean, Brighton, in April. Officers had gone to investigate reports of someone in the area and saw him emerge from a makeshift tent.

Reynolds is accused of subjecting a 24-year-old student to an hour-long rape ordeal in Hove as she headed home from a New Year's Eve party.

He is alleged to have struck in the early hours after she asked him for directions and he suggested a short-cut through a day centre in New Church Road.

A day after his arrest, Reynolds was picked out in an ID parade at Brighton police station by his alleged victim.

Detective Constable Lee Taylor told Lewes Crown Court officers went to the cliff-top on April 27.

He said: "We saw a green tarpaulin but you could not see whether there was somebody underneath. After a moment or two I saw a person emerge from the sheet."

When they approached him he at first told them he was called John and then said his name was Paul Johnson, the court heard.

Mr Taylor said: "I said, 'You are Paul Reynolds and you are wanted for the rape in Hove on New Year's Day'. To which he said his name was Paul Johnson."

The officers recognised him from photographs and arrested him, the jury heard.

Michel Massih QC, defending Reynolds, said: "The 'millennium rape', as it came to be known, hit the headlines on the local newspapers.

"By the time you came to arrest my client you already knew his name and you were aware that his parents had been visited by the police and that a DNA sample had been taken for testing.

"You knew at that stage you were going to be arresting a suspect in a headline case involving a serious attack."

Mr Taylor agreed with Mr Massih's suggestion that Reynolds was by that stage the "prime suspect".

Reynolds denies four counts of rape. The trial continues.