Sexual assault victims often do not report the attacks immediately, a prosecutor told a Supreme Court jury yesterday.

Crown counsel Juan Wolffe said it was not unusual for women to delay reporting the incidents to Police.

"Some people wait months to report a sexual assault,'' he said during closing arguments in the trial of a 28-year-old man who denies sexually assaulting a woman on March 10, 1999.

During her testimony, the 21-year-old victim admitted that she did not report the alleged incident until the following day -- leading the defendant's lawyer Sonia Grant to question whether the attack took place.

Neither the man nor the woman may be named for legal reasons.

In his closing argument, however, Mr. Wolffe argued that no-one could say the woman's actions were wrong, adding that no-one should speculate on what a person who has been sexually assaulted thinks afterward.

He noted, however, that a woman may have stronger intuition about why people wait to report such matters.

Earlier this week, the woman told the court that she knew the man who sexually assaulted her and met him as she waited in Middletown for her boyfriend to come and give her bus fare.

When her boyfriend did not show up the woman asked the man for fare. He told her that he did not have any change with him, but that he could get some at his house.

The court heard that when the woman arrived at the man's apartment he asked her for sex. She refused and the man then pinned her to the bed and sexually assaulted her in front of her two-year-old daughter.

The jury heard the man threw the woman $6 before she ran out of his house in tears. She then went to the Bermuda Telephone Company and called her sister.

On Wednesday, the woman's sister confirmed she received a call from the alleged victim that night and that she had offered no assistance.

During cross-examination on Wednesday, Ms Grant argued the sister offered no support because the incident never happened.

But, referring to the sister's actions, Mr. Wolffe said people react in differing ways.

Yesterday the defendant, who told the court he cannot read, continued his testimony. He contradicted both his previous testimony and the statement he gave Police after the incident.

Mr. Wolffe said the man's story was "inconsistent, weak, and full of holes'', but the woman's was "clear, consistent, and detailed''.

He added there was evidence to support the woman's testimony: her sister, and a doctor's examination, which revealed scratches on her thighs and private parts.

There was no evidence, on the other hand, to support the man's testimony, Mr.

Wolffe told the court.

"I suspect he left huge gaps because he is lying,'' he continued.

Mr. Wolffe said many of the questions raised by the defence were never dealt with again as the man appeared to be making up a story as he went along.

The defence suggested the woman made up the entire story.

But, Mr. Wolffe wondered how the woman concocted such an intact story so quickly. He also questiond why the woman would injure herself just to get the man.

On Wednesday, the man claimed the woman never brought an umbrella to his apartment -- contrary to what he told the Police.

Mr. Wolffe said the man removed the umbrella from his later story because he realised it led to the sexual assault as the woman was reaching for the umbrella when he first tried to kiss her.

But, in her closing statement, Ms. Grant said her client vehemently denied ever sexually assaulting the woman and jabbed her umbrella toward the jury.

"The normal reaction...would be to give the man a good whack with it,'' she said.

Ms Grant told the jury there were many oddities in the case, which indicated her client's innocence.

The man told the court he gave the woman four $1 coins and one $2 bill. Ms Grant then argued that the woman would not have had 25 cents to call her sister.

She told the jury that the woman made a number of unwise decisions that night including staying out in Middletown for a long time; failing to take money from a friend who was also there; and failing to report the alleged incident to the Police.

"We are not trying to say that the world is out to get (the defendant). We are simply saying he did not sexually assault this woman,'' Ms Grant said.