Legal arguments kept the jury out of the courtroom yesterday as the trial of a man accused of violent sexual assault continued in Supreme Court.

The 35-year-old Warwick man accused of the crime denied having anything to do with the attack, the jury heard on Wednesday.

Det. Con. Calvin Smith told the court that the accused man was arrested on the same day as the assault -- October 14, 2000 -- and gave a statement under caution at Somerset Police Station.

The man told detectives he helped the victim get change from a taxi driver who threw her out of his cab in the early hours of the morning because she was eating.

But he claimed he last saw the 29-year-old English woman when she disappeared with a man on a big bike, like a Yamaha, in the early hours of October 14 on Middle Road.

The female accountant testified on Monday and Tuesday that after taxi driver Kenneth Bourne threw her out of his taxi at 3 a.m., leaving her with a three-mile walk home, the defendant approached her on his bike and offered her a lift.

She said she refused initially but then accepted because she had no other way of getting home.

She said she became concerned when the defendant would not follow her instructions and jumped off as he turned the bike onto Riddell's Bay Road.

As she walked along Middle Road approaching Heron's Nest Drive, she said she was grabbed by the neck and taken to an area behind a tree where the man attempted to rape her during a violent struggle.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies the charge of serious sexual assault.

Police officer Insp. Michael DeSilva testified on Tuesday that he found the woman curled up in foetal position at Middle Road near the junction with Scenic Heights Road in a hysterical condition following the attack.

Her dress was dishevelled and her underwear and pantyhose were tangled around her ankles, he said. The woman was also bruised and scratched in several areas.

Det. Con. Smith testified that, in his Police statement, the defendant said he had been drinking at the PHC Club in Warwick until it closed at about 1 a.m. on the morning of the attack and was hanging about until Police came and asked what he was doing.

He was told his bike was not licensed and he should not ride it. But as he was going to ride it home, he stopped at a bus stop and saw the taxi driver arguing with a white woman.

"He told her to 'get the f*** out' of his car" because she was eating, the defendant said in his statement.

"He pulled her out of the taxi and was demanding money from the lady, telling her she had to pay the $20 bill and snatched it out of her hand.

"I looked inside and saw the metre was $18 and told him to give her the change."

He said the driver gave the woman the $2 then asked him if he had witnessed what had happened. "I said 'yes' and he said he did not need to go through that s**t."

The defendant claims that as the victim was walking away, another man approached her on a bike and began speaking to her, then gave her a package. The defendant told Police he then drove off down Ord Road on his blue Honda Lead.

He said he did not get a look at the person who stopped on the other bike, but added: "I did not have anything to do with the lady after she walked off."

Elizabeth Christopher for the defence and Vinette Graham-Allen for the Crown spent yesterday and part of Wednesday arguing legal points in the absence of the jury before presiding Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons.

The trial is expected to continue today.