AN 18-year-old Bury girl who claims to have been the victim of a rape attack in a town centre car park broke down in tears as she gave evidence at Bolton Crown Court yesterday (May 29).

Jason Power (25) of Cross Street, Radcliffe, and Lawrence Francis (31) of Bell Lane, Bury, have pleaded not guilty to raping the girl last December. The girl may not be named for legal reasons.

A third man, who was charged along with Power and Francis, was Dennis Proudfoot (21) of St John's Court, Radcliffe.

The court was told that Proudfoot had committed suicide shortly after being released on police bail.

The girl had written a letter to Proudfoot's parents stating that he had not participated in the rape attack.

Mr John Price QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the girl and two friends had met Proudfoot in the Black Bull public house on The Rock, Bury, and she had agreed to go with him into the car-park nearby.

While they were kissing, Power and Francis arrived and raped the girl in Proudfoot's presence, Mr Price alleged.

Afterwards in a distressed state, she was walking home when she flagged down a passing police car and complained of being attacked.

In her first interview, the girl made no mention of Proudfoot's part in the incident but later made a fuller statement implicating him in events that evening, Mr Price said.

When they were arrested, both Power and Francis claimed that what occurred was with the girl's consent, Mr Price told the jury.

Giving evidence on the second day of the trial yesterday, the girl said she had not mentioned Proudfoot in her original complaint because he had had "nothing to do with it". Cross-examined by Alistair Webster QC, the girl agreed she had walked past a number of telephone kiosks and shops where she could have reported the rape, before flagging down the police car.

On Wednesday, the prosecuting counsel said Proudfoot "was clearly an active party" in a "serious and sordid rape". He also told the court that if he had not killed himself, Proudfoot would have been in the dock.

He said there had not been any scientific evidence that the girl had even had sex, let alone been raped.

Proudfoot's father, also called Dennis, sat impassively through the hearing this week. Mr Proudfoot senior sat with his late son's steady girlfriend, Wendy Corns, as the alleged victim told the court: "Francis was knelt on my arms, both arms.

"He put his hand over my mouth so I couldn't scream.

"Dennis was on his knees, over me. Power was down at the bottom of my legs."

The trial is expected to last a week.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.