A man accused of breaking into a house and sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy took the stand at Supreme Court yesterday and stated: "It was not me."

The 27-year-old Southampton man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed his bike had been stolen from him the night it was found parked near the house where a youngster had his penis and buttocks touched by an intruder in September, 2001.

He also told the court that the only reason he was seen in the area on the morning of the alleged assault was because he was looking for the bike, taken when he was asleep at the roadside after a night out drinking.

And on an eventful penultimate day of the trial, defence counsel Larry Mussenden accused the Police of failing to gather sufficient evidence in a scathing attack during his closing speech.

"It is a Police investigation that lacked in its entirety," Mr. Mussenden told the jury at the end of day four of the trial that began the week before Fabian hit the Island. (One) that you the people would never be satisfied with if your home had been violated, your son had been violated. You would not accept this investigation."

The final two Crown witnesses took the stand earlier in the day, with P.c. Carl-Lynn Smith saying she attempted to arrest the accused at around 3 p.m. on the day of the alleged assault.

The officer, who said she had known the defendant for 16 years, said she approached the man in her marked Police car near Dundonald Street but he ran off when she called him over.

She added that he then eluded Police but turned himself in the next day.

The father of the six-year-old, who also cannot be named, then told the court he had been awakened on the morning of the incident by the screams from his wife and ran outside the house where he found a bike, which a key found in the house started, and a crash helmet as well as a quantity of drugs in two separate packets.

The bike was later found to be registered to the accused, a matter he did not contest.

Then the accused himself took the stand, the only defence witness to be called.

He told the court that the night before the incident he had been to "socialise" at a tattoo parlour before riding his bike to an address in Southampton where he left it before driving to Showtime night-club in Dockyard with a friend.

The court heard that he left the club at 3.30 a.m. after three Guinesses and stopped at his house to get some money before going to Ice Queen to get some food.

He then got a lift back to pick up his bike, he said.

"I put the key in the ignition and rode the bike," he told the court.

"But I started to feel sick so I stopped the bike and sat down on a step. I rested the helmet on the bike, left the key in the ignition. I had too much to drink and drive. I put my finger down my throat to try and throw up and then fell asleep.

"I woke up to see someone ride off on my bike. I saw a man put the helmet on and ride off. I jumped up and chased but I couldn't catch them."

He said he then walked around and headed towards the vicinity of where the assault took place when "I saw a bike going to that area and I went to see if it was my bike".

The next day he went to see his family and he said they told him that Police were looking for him so he went and handed himself in. He denied being the man on Court Street who the Police chased on Sunday, stating he spent that day with his family in Warwick.

He said he had visited the house where the assault had taken place previously.

But when asked if he had committed the sexual assault, he said: "No, it was not me."

When asked if he parked the bike near the house, he replied: "No, I didn't park it there", although he did admit it was his bike found near the scene.

In his closing speech Crown counsel Graveney Bannister told the jury: "At the time (of the assault) the victim was sleeping in his underwear, he screamed and the mother got up and saw a man kneeling down touching her son.

"She yelped from the top of her lungs and in doing so woke her husband. When the mother screamed them an ran out of the room round 6.25 a.m. We know the accused was around the area because he was seen by (a neighbour who had given evidence the day before).

"The husband recovered a bike from nearby, using a key found in the house. We later found that the bike belonged to the accused.

"We say it was he (the accused) who broke into the house, it was he who assaulted the victim, it was he."

In his closing speech, Mr. Mussenden then launched an attack on the Police, accusing them of failing to gather enough evidence to prosecute his client, with a lack of forensic evidence his particular focus.

"It is a Police investigation that lacked in its entirety," Mr. Mussenden told the jury.

"(One) that you the people would never be satisfied with if your home had been violated, your son had been violated. You would not accept this investigation. But you cannot penalise my client because of this.

"They never thought of anybody else as a suspect. Can you be sure of the Crown case? The answer was to go to TCD and that put the accused in the dock.

"Were they (the Police) standing around at the scene and someone radioed in to say that they had found the registered owner of the bike, so they just went home?

"There is no forensic evidence in this entire case. Something is missing, whole chunks are missing. The Police focused on the registered owner (of the bike) and have not considered any other suspect. They have ignored other possibilities."

The trial continues today when Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons will sum up before sending out the jury.