The trial of a Southampton man accused of house breaking and sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy began at Supreme Court yesterday.

Crown Counsel Graveney Bannister told the jury how they would hear the 27-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke into a house in Southampton on September 16, 2001 and entered the bedroom where a mother and her son were sleeping.

He said that the accused then touched the boy on his buttocks and his penis before he was disturbed and that a bike key, which started a vehicle registered to the accused parked near by, was left at the scene.

"It appears he entered via a sliding door and then once inside he went up a couple of steps and into the bedroom," Mr. Bannister told the court in his opening address to the jury.

"In the bedroom were the victim, a six-year-old boy, and his mother.

"The accused, we say, touched the boy on his buttocks and touched his penis.

"The boy initially thought the man was his dad and said `what are you doing daddy?' At that time the mother got up to see the accused in the bedroom."

Mr. Bannister said that the boy's father, who was sleeping on a couch downstairs, was awoken by the noise and went to look around. He went outside, it was said, and found a bike and a crash helmet and when he came inside he found a bike key by the door, which he later found to fit the bike.

"Investigations by the Police revealed the cycle belonged to the accused," said Mr. Bannister.

"Around 3.45 p.m Police officers approached the accused and asked him to accompany them and the accused ran off.

"We say, that the key at the location puts the accused man there and it was he who assaulted the six-year-old and it was he who ran off."

In evidence Theodore Providence, a now retired constable from the scenes of crime office, told the court that he took photos of the apartment and that the only evidence he gathered, a partial handprint found on the sliding door, was of "insufficient detail to be of use".

In cross examination, defence counsel Larry Mussenden asked: "Not one of the examinations you did placed the accused in the apartment?"

To which Mr. Providence, after a pause, replied: "Yes, that is correct."

Detective Constable Terry Pringle, the only other witness to appear on the first day of the trial, told the court that she seized a number of items from the property that day including the bike, the crash helmet, the keys and a plastic bag containing unknown items.

She also said she arrested the accused on "suspicion of b and e (breaking and entering) and sexual assault".

Det. Con. Pringle is expected to give further evidence today as the trial continues.