A tearful mother told a court yesterday of how she awoke to discover a man crouching over her six-year-old son.

The woman was giving evidence in the Supreme Court trial of a 27-year-old Southampton man accused of housebreaking and sexually assaulting her son in September, 2001.

The accused is said to have touched the penis and buttocks of the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

"I heard my son say 'what are you doing?'," the mother, who also cannot be named, told the court. "Then I heard my son say again 'what are you doing, Daddy?'

"The tone of my son's voice sounded alarmed. I turned and saw a man crouched next to the bed over my son."

The mother was one of three witnesses to give evidence on the third day of the trial, adjourned from the day before Fabian struck and resuming after an 11-day break due to the embodiment with the Bermuda Regiment of the defence counsel and one of the four men on the jury.

Det. Sgt. Barry Richards, who supervised the investigation and formally charged the accused, was the first to take the stand.

When asked by Crown counsel Graveney Barrister to describe the accused at the time of his interview, two days after the alleged incident took place, he said: "His hair was short, almost clean-shaven. I think he had a goatee, as far as I can remember."

In cross-examination from defence counsel Larry Mussenden, he admitted the description wasn't recorded in his statement.

Then the victim's mother entered the witness box, telling the court that she and her husband had been working in their living room the night before the incident and she retired to bed about 10 p.m., leaving her husband to continue downstairs - he spent the night on the couch.

"I was in bed sleeping and my son had climbed into our bed at some time in the night," she said.

"There was two or three feet between us. I heard my son say 'what are you doing?' I thought my husband had come into the room to start getting ready for work. Then I heard my son say again 'what are you doing, Daddy?'

"But the tone of his voice was alarmed. The tone of my son's voice sounded alarmed.

"The second time I heard him speak, because of the alarm in his voice, it caused me to wake up fully. A little light was coming through the window and I turned over and saw a man crouched next to the bed over my son."

By now the woman was reduced to tears and, after a pause to receive a tissue from the court clerk, she continued: "He was clean-shaven, with a close haircut, almost bald.

"He was thin, dark-skinned with a long torso.

"I know it wasn't my husband because my husband has dreadlocks. Once I realised that there was an intruder, I just screamed 'hey' at the top of my lungs to get away from my son. I jumped up, he stood up straight and ran.

"He was at least my height, five feet nine inches, maybe a little taller, five-feet-ten inches or five-feet-11 inches. He ran out of the bedroom. I jumped over my son and went out the bedroom as well and saw him running out of the open door (to the apartment)."

She then told the court how she screamed to her husband who went chasing after the intruder and returned with a crash helmet in his hand.

She also said she found a "bike or car key" by the front door and that when she gave it to her husband, he came back riding a bike he had found outside.

She added that she had seen the bike parked across the street before and she had seen it being ridden before.

Under cross-examination, Mr. Mussenden asked her about a paper twist containing rocks that "looked like drugs" and a plastic bags also containing rocks that was found outside the house.

The final witness, teenager Alfred Russell, said that he saw the accused early on the morning of the alleged incident and that he was wearing a white T-shirt and was "clean-cut".

He said he saw the man for about 20 seconds and recognised the bike - which had a distinctive decal on it - as belonging to the accused.

The trial continues and is expected to conclude later today.