Former Tory MP and Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans used his power and influence to rape and sexually abuse young men, a court heard today.

Evans raped a young man who was invited to his house in Lancashire, the court was told.

Evans, 56, and the young man were drunk and the MP made sexual advances and eventually led him to his bed.

Said prosecutor Mark Heywood QC: "The younger man did not at first do or say anything.

"He was nonplussed and acutely aware of the other's position of authority."

The court was told that in bed the man escaped three times to the bathroom and sent mobile phone messages to a friend - who had also been an alleged sex assault victim of Evans - begging "help me."

His friend advised him either to punch Evans, leave the house or hide in the loft. But the young man waited hoping the MP would be asleep then slipped back to the bed.

Eventually he fell asleep only to awake to find Evans raping him, said Mr Heywood.

"The younger man froze in shock," said the QC.

When Evans was in the shower the student grabbed his clothes and walked up to an hour to get a train from Clitheroe.

The court heard Evans had been warned by the whips after complaints about his sexual misbehaviour in July 2009.

Patrick McLoughlin - then the Tory Chief Whip and now Transport Secretary - advised him to come out as gay. Evans did not do so until December 2012.

By that time he has been elected Deputy Speaker with hopes of succeeding John Bercow as Speaker but again he was warned by fellow Tory MP Conor Burns about the gossip about his sexual conduct.

Following his arrest, Evans resigned as Deputy Speaker but remains the MP for the Ribble Valley, sitting as an independent. He has pleaded not guilty to nine sex charges involving seven alleged victims from 2002 to 2013.

Opening the trial at Preston crown court, Mark Heywood, QC, said: “Within the Palace of Westminster, in his constituency and in his own political party, Mr Evans was a very well-known and powerful individual.

“Part of his influence was the ability to make, or to break, the careers of young people who would be politicians or work for those who govern.

“He, often when in drink, pressed his sexual attentions on these young men, on occasions using or trading on his position of influence. This behaviour has been repeated over time despite warnings.”

The Commons Speaker John Bercow and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin are among nine MPs who will give evidence for the prosecution.

The court heard the alleged offences grew more and more serious because Evans believed that he was too powerful for any victim to lodge an effective complaint against him. Mr Heywood went on: “On separate occasions over many years Evans sexually assaulted young men both in public situations and in private.

“By the last of these in early 2013, he raped one of the young men who had come to him for work experience. He not only abused these young men, in some instances very seriously so, but he abused the positions he held.”

The court heard Evans had a home in Pendleton near Clitheroe, a London flat in Westminster and two offices in the House of Commons for his dual role as Deputy Speaker and MP.

The jury will hear from two ex-MPs, including former Lib-Dem Lembit Opik.

In the other charges he faces, Evans is accused of:

* indecently assaulting a married Conservative at the Tory conference in Blackpool.

* indecently assaulting a Parliamentary assistant outside the Strangers Bar at the Commons.

* sexually assaulting a Government advisor outside the Strangers Bar.

* sexually assaulting a Commons researcher in the Deputy Speakers kitchen at the Commons.

* sexually assaulted another Parliamentary assistant at his constituency home in Pendleton, Lancashire.

Evans denies all the charges.

The case continues.