An alleged sex attacker's testimony failed to match with the statement he gave Police at the time of his arrest, it was revealed in Supreme Court yesterday.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty on Monday to the charge of sexual assault in March,1999.

A nine-woman, three-man jury struggled to understand the testimony of the 28-year-old man who says he cannot read nor write.

The man denied that he sexually assaulted the woman when she came to his house on March 10.

Earlier this week, the 21-year-old victim alleged that the man, who she knew previously, pinned her to his bed and sexually assaulted her in front of her two-year-old child.

She said she saw the man as she waited in Middletown for her daughter's father to arrive and give her bus fare. But, after she waited two hours the woman asked the man for change, the court heard.

The man allegedly told the woman that he only had paper money with him, but that he would give her change if she came to his house. She went to his house after the man left.

Yesterday the man, who has been married since the incident, admitted that he saw the woman in Middletown on the evening, but claimed she never asked for bus fare until she got to his house. Instead, he told the court that the woman said she would come to his house to see him.

The man said when he left Middletown the woman was still standing in the street.

"She didn't talk to me for long because she didn't want anyone to see her talking to me because they would talk to the baby's father,'' he explained.

He told the court that he went to a friend's house for approximately 20 minutes before he headed home.

Upon his arrival at his house the man said he turned on some quiet music because other residents were home.

The court heard that the woman came into the house about three hours later by way of a door that the man said is always open. He did not say that he was standing at the door waiting, as the woman testified earlier this week.

But, he did admit that the woman asked him if her daughter could use the bathroom.

After the child used the bathroom the woman came into the man's bedroom, the court heard.

The man told the court that the woman sat on his bed while he sat in the chair and talked to her. He claims that this was the first time the woman asked for bus fare.

The man said that the conversation stopped when they heard a knock at the window. The woman feared that it was her boyfriend, who was aware of the two's friendship.

He told the court that the woman kissed him on the cheek and touched his shoulder before rising to leave. He added that he gave her $6 before she left and said: "She left a happy person.'' During the woman's testimony she said that she did go into the man's bedroom after taking her daughter to the bathroom. But, she said that her daughter played with a remote while they both sat on the bed talking.

The woman told the judge and jury that she refused a request by the man that she spend the night. She said the man then asked when she would give him sex.

While telling the man she would not have sex with him because he had a girlfriend and she had a boyfriend she stood up to grab her umbrella. It was when she turned that the man approached her, trying to kiss her, the woman alleged.

When asked by the man's lawyer Sonia Grant what he thought about the woman's testimony the man told the court that she did not have an umbrella.

A Police statement given by the man after the incident, however, indicated that the man had in fact told the Police that the woman had an umbrella in his bedroom on the day of the incident.

The man did not read the statement, as he said he could not, but Crown counsel Juan Wolffe read the statement to the man asking him to acknowledge that it was legitimate.

While he seemed to understand what was asked of him he still did not clearly indicate whether he agreed that the statement was accurate.

Finally the man alluded that he perhaps did not say that the woman had an umbrella and said: "He read the page too fast.'' The woman's older sister took the stand earlier yesterday to corroborate her sister's testimony.

She added that she also knew her sister's attacker because he had been involved with two of her sisters -- not one as the woman told the court on Monday.

She said that her sister called from a pay phone around 9 p.m. -shortly after finishing her work shift at a nursing home near the hospital.

The witness told the court that her sister was crying as she recounted how the man sexually assaulted her at his apartment.

Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux attempted to clarify whether the sister could be sure her sister was using a pay phone when she called. The sister said no and was then asked to explain how one uses a pay phone.

She explained that the number must be dialled and money must be put in the slot before a connection is made, but she failed to mention the beeps that the call receiver hears when the phone is answered -- characteristic of Bermuda's pay phones.

The man first took the stand yesterday proclaiming what Mr. Justice Meerabux called a "manifest denial of something''. When asked why he was there, he told the court: "They lie on me for sexual assault.'' The trial continues this morning.