The defence lawyer in a sex assault trial yesterday told the alleged victim that he believed she had merely "called rape" because her alleged attacker had refused to give her cash.

Attorney Mark Pettingill asked the 19-year-old woman whether she would have been in court if the defendant, who cannot be named, had given her $500 cash after they had had sex.

He said that despite claiming that she was afraid for her safety at the time of the alleged incident, the woman, who was homeless, had taken a bath at the man's home when there was no lock on the bathroom door.

And he said she had made no attempt to smash the bathroom window and climb out, or scream for help.

On Tuesday the court heard the woman claim that she and her boyfriend had run into three men fighting on Parsons Road in Pembroke on December 5 last year.

She said one of the men pulled away from the fight and put his arm around her, telling her they shared a cousin.

She said the defendant and her boyfriend, who she lived rough with, spoke to each other, and soon after the accused went to her, put his arm around her, covered her mouth with his hand and then walked her to his nearby Devonshire home.

There, the teenager said he ran a bath for her, and then repeatedly went in and out of the bathroom while she was bathing and getting dressed again.

The alleged victim said she became increasingly afraid but did not want to leave because his pitbull dog was tied to the bathroom door. And she said she was afraid to call for help in case the defendant heard her, and was afraid to leave in case he saw her.

She said she believed the bathroom window was too small to climb through and said she was not aware how high off the ground it was.

The victim alleges that the 28-year-old accused did go back into the bathroom, where he hit her in the face, causing her nose to bleed, forced her underwear off, pushed her to the ground and raped her.

She told the court that they then went downstairs to the kitchen, where he ate food, and she went home.

But Mr. Pettingill said: "I would suggest to you that you did not have any injuries or any damage to your clothing because there was no struggle.

"You knew when the defendant left you in the bathroom that he was going to get condoms.

"I would suggest to you that you did not smash the window out and scream for help in this crowded neighbourhood because you knew full well what was happening.

"Would you be here if the defendant had said `here you go cousin, here's $500 to get yourself sorted out'?

"I would suggest that before you left you were upset about not getting the money and you told the defendant that you would call rape."

But the alleged victim, who is now living back with her family, told Mr. Pettingill that his suggestion was incorrect.

And the unemployed woman said the accused had offered to give her $500, but she had refused it. And she said she did tell the defendant that she would call rape, because in her opinion it was rape.

Mr. Pettingill also suggested the woman had been given the bloody nose by someone other than the accused that night, after she had left his home to go back to her boyfriend.

The alleged victim denied his claim.

The prosecution closed its case yesterday afternoon after the court heard how the woman had gone to Hamilton Police Station with her boyfriend in a distraught state in the early hours of December 5.

P.c Carol Smith told Supreme Court that the woman had arrived in the station with a bloody nose and was crying uncontrollably. Her boyfriend, who was said to be angry when she returned home to him, left soon after.

And retired Police Inspector Edward Coghlan Gibbons told the jury that when he accompanied the alleged victim at an identity parade, at which the defendant was present, she was trembling and crying, and was unable to walk along the line a second time, as she was permitted to do.

The defence offered no evidence yesterday and the case was adjourned for summations by Prosecutor Charmaine Smith, Mr. Pettingill, and Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons to begin this morning. The jury may be sent out later today.