A 19-year-old Pembroke woman who accepted a ride from a stranger last year claimed that she was sexually assaulted.

The complainant yesterday told the Supreme Court how the 32-year-old defendant had offered her a lift home while waiting at a Warwick bus stop on the evening of April 26 last year.

She had come from visiting family members in the Jones Village area near Khyber Pass.

The complainant said she had seen the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, around Jones Village, but did not know him personally.

And although she initially declined the offer, the defendant allegedly persisted and told the complainant she would be taken straight home. When no bus appeared, the complainant agreed.

The two stopped near the junction of Harbour and Longford roads in Warwick where the defendant told the complainant that "he wanted to talk with her''.

But she said they would have to go back to her house or "somewhere light where people were around'' if he wanted to talk.

But after "taking a leak'', the defendant took the complainant to the Belmont Golf Course.

"That's when I felt frightened and uncomfortable,'' said the complainant. "I was very scared.'' "He tried to start a conversation and asked if I wanted to have sex with him,'' she said.

"I said I didn't. He said he wanted to sleep with me `even if he could get it in for only a minute'.

"And he told me `You girls are so stupid. You sleep with guys who don't care about you but you won't sleep with the ones that do'.'' The defendant allegedly pulled out his penis and asked the complainant to look at it.

When she refused, she said he made her touch his penis.

"I told him it was gross,'' she said.

"Then I tried to leave, but he grabbed me by the arm and put his arms around me. He put his hands down my pants and tried to feel my a**.

"I pushed him over and ran over the golf course to Middle Road. I just wanted to get home some way.'' But when she flagged down a cab on Middle Road and told the driver she had "almost been raped'', he refused to take her home because she did not have the cash on her.

But having explained her situation to another stranger, the complainant eventually hitched a ride home on the back of his bike.

After calling her cousin in Jones Village, the complainant and her cousin confronted the defendant and his wife the following day.

"He denied everything and he said he had never seen me before in his life. It just didn't make sense,'' she said.

But the defendant told her: "I'm a Rasta man. I don't do those types of things. You've got the wrong person.'' Police were later contacted.

Cross-examination of the complainant by defence counsel Kim Wilson continues today. Puisne Judge Philip Storr presides.