A "stressful'' five-year marriage ended in a flurry of name calling, shouting, and sexual assault, a Supreme Court jury was told yesterday.

Testifying on the opening day of a sexual assault trial against her former husband, a 40-year-old Sandys Parish woman told the court she came home on the afternoon of May 29, 1995 -- after working the day at an Island hotel -- only to find her husband standing in their apartment, wearing only a T-shirt and his underpants: "He said, `C'mon, let's do it one last time before you leave', I told him no,'' the woman recounted.

The complainant, who had planned to divorce her husband and move to her mother's house that day, recalled how he became angry, verbally abusive and how the confrontation escalated, with him grabbing her by the arms and throwing her to a bed, holding a hand over her mouth, and sexually assaulting her.

A 39-year-old St. George's man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, faces one charge of serious sexual assault causing bodily harm.

The Crown -- represented by counsel Charlene Scott -- alleges he forced his wife into having sex with him at their St. David's apartment. "It was a traumatic situation; emotions were raw,'' Ms Scott told the nine-woman, three-man jury.

After heated words, said the woman, her husband left the apartment but returned through a bedroom window.

"That's when he assaulted me, when he came back. He threw me on the bed face down with his hand over my mouth, calling me names and trying to pull my pants down. I said `no, don't do it', but he was still calling me names like bitch and whore.'' After the assault the woman, in a state of shock, walked over to a friend's house and called the Police.

Under the cross examination by defence counsel Juan Wolffe, the woman told the court the fight was punctuated by loud screaming but admitted no one in the St. David's neighbourhood heard the fight. She also denied assertions she could have escaped the house when her husband briefly left.

"You're making all this up as you're going along, aren't you,'' said Mr.

Wolffe. "I put it to you the reason no one heard anything is because there was nothing to hear.'' "Oh there was something to hear,'' replied the woman. "There was struggling, there was name calling, there was everything going on.'' In other testimony a clinical pathologist, Dr. Keith Cunningham, told the court he examined the complainant the evening of the assault and noted bruising and swelling to her upper arms and noted she complained of stiffness in her wrists and shoulder.

Further examination revealed deep bruising and tenderness to her upper thighs and evidence of recent sexual activity, testified Dr. Cunningham.

The trial, before Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux, resumes today in the Supreme Court.