A jury has heard that a man who had previously received treatment at the former St. Brendan?s Hospital allegedly committed a sexual assault on another outpatient after she accepted a ride on his motorbike.

The 57-year-old Warwick man, who cannot be named due to legal restrictions in the Criminal Code, denies a charge of sexual assault causing actual bodily harm against a woman who was 42 at the time of the alleged incident in March, 2004.

Opening the case of the prosecution, Crown counsel Graveney Bannister told a Supreme Court jury that the woman who had brought the complaint was at the former St. Brendan?s Hospital, now known as the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute, when she decided to walk down Devon Spring Lane to buy some cigarettes.

?(The accused) saw her and offered her something ?nice? to smoke,? said Mr. Bannister.

He said the woman agreed to get on the man?s bike to go to the shop but, when he reached South Road, he drove the bike to Devonshire Bay instead and went to a concealed area where he showed the woman a ?brown twist with a rock?.

According to Mr. Bannister the ?rock? was not a drug but an actual small rock.

?The woman got angry and asked what it was,? said Mr. Bannister.

It is then alleged that the man choked the woman as he pushed her to the ground and then pulled down his pants and asked her to perform a sex act on him.

The woman refused and was straddled by the man, who then committed a sexual assault upon her, the jury was told.

Addressing the jury, Mr. Bannister said the woman had scratched the accused as she struggled during the alleged assault and finally managed to break free, dress herself and return to St. Brendan?s where she reported what had happened and was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for further examination of her injuries.

Mr. Bannister said: ?It was sexual assault without consent and causing injury.?

The first witness called was Police Det. Con. Eric Woods who produced photographs taken of the man and the woman shortly after the alleged incident, which showed a number of injuries including bruising, scratches and swelling to various parts of their bodies.

MAWI consultant psychiatrist Dr. Sanu Pal presented psychiatric assessments of both the accused and the woman when he gave evidence.

Dr. Pal informed the jury he had only been on the Island since February this year and was relying on information made by hospital staff at the time of the alleged incident in 2004.

He said the man had received treatment at St. Brendan?s and MAWI since 1971 and has previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Dr. Pal said he was assessed as being in a ?stable mental state? in 2001.

Following the alleged assault in 2004, he was reassessed and the consultant at the time ?was satisfied he was showing no psychotic signs?.

Dr. Pal said the woman was an outpatient at the hospital at the time of the alleged assault and had previously been diagnosed with a bi-polar effective disorder, which created mood swings, depression and could lead to irritability and anger.

He said that in early 2004 she had been assessed as being in a ?stable mental state.?

The case continues.