A Policewoman told her superior officer she feared she was going to be raped by another officer, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Insp. Anselm Kirby, a former Western Division sergeant, gave the evidence during the Police sexual harassment Board of Inquiry.

He told the hearing he was handed a note by the alleged victim reporting the sex attack at Somerset Police Station in September 1996.

The handwritten note, which came five days after the incident, read: "I need to speak to you. I was assaulted by a P.c.'' And Insp. Kirby said he spoke to the Policewoman about her claims in a private discussion.

He added: "She said that she thought she was going to be raped.'' He said the alleged victim, P.c. A, said she shouted out during the incident in another constable's office. Insp. Kirby said: "She stated that she swore, loud enough to be heard by persons in the adjoining rooms: `What the f*** are you doing'?'' The 26-year-old Policewoman, who has now quit the force, claimed her attacker forced a kiss on her in his office when she went to pay a bar bill.

She said he also rubbed his own private parts through his trousers, telling her how much he wanted her.

Chief Insp. Larry Smith, in charge of the station at the time, said he was like a "surrogate father'' to the alleged victim.

He said he went to P.c. A's apartment when he heard she had reported the attack.

And Chief Insp. Smith said the woman claimed her ordeal reminded her of being raped at the age of nine or ten.

Reading from a statement he gave in September, 1996, he added: "She said: `This man must be crazy. I don't have anything to do with him'.

"I advised her to take the proper course of action...that is make an official complaint about the matter.

"I informed her that I would be notifying the Deputy Commissioner immediately.'' Chief Insp. Smith was being questioned By P.c. A's lawyer, Clare Hatcher.

He said he had never spoken with the accused Policeman about the claims apart from reading a typed report from him on the allegations.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Richard Hector, the Chief Inspector described the Policewoman as someone who "would stand no nonsense''.

Chief Insp. Smith added: "If she didn't want you to bother her, she would tell you just where to get off.'' And he described the defendant, known only as P.c. B, as "very trusting and very pleasant''.

He added: "I didn't ever think that he would compromise confidentiality or things of that nature.'' The tribunal heard Acting Det. Insp. Randolph Liverpool ran the Police inquiry into the sex case.

The tribunal continues today.