A SUFFOLK woman sobbed as she described being raped as a seven-year-old in an upstairs bathroom while her parents partied outside.The woman, now aged 18, told a court how William Collins, then aged 37, forced a face flannel into her mouth and grabbed her arms to stop her banging on the window to alert her mum and dad.

A SUFFOLK woman sobbed as she described being raped as a seven-year-old in an upstairs bathroom while her parents partied outside.

The woman, now aged 18, told a court how William Collins, then aged 37, forced a face flannel into her mouth and grabbed her arms to stop her banging on the window to alert her mum and dad.

She said: "He pushed me in the corner and lifted me up. I was crying so he put a flannel in my mouth. It happened so quickly. Then he thought he heard someone coming up the stairs and chucked me down on the floor and told me to clean myself up. Then he said if I told anyone, he would kill me.

"He left me on the floor and went downstairs. I just sat there crying."

The court heard how she used the flannel to clean herself and then wrapped it in tissue hiding it in her bedroom.

Collins, denies raping the girl in 1993. He also denies a further count of indecent assault on a girl aged 10, in 1998.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how the woman decided to make the allegation a decade after the alleged assault because she had been initially too frightened, and later "too embarrassed", to come forward.

Asked by Collins' defence counsel Richard Atchley why she chose to confide in a friend last August who she had known just four months, she said: "I find it easier to talk to people who don't know me."

The jury heard how Collins married and left the Woodbridge area, where the attacks were alleged to have taken place, and moved to Wrexham in Wales.

It was in Wrexham that police arrested Collins, now aged 47, later charging him with rape and a further count of indecent assault on a ten-year-old girl in 1998.

In the later incident Collins allegedly kissed a 10-year-old girl before forcing her to put her right hand on his groin.

But in a police interview, Collins denied touching either girl.

Defender, Mr Atchley accused the woman of lying. He said: "This is a pack of lies made up in order to explain to your parents your moody behaviour last year. The moodiness was brought about by problems with your boyfriend."

The trial continues.