A WOMAN has told a jury that folk singer Roy Harper indecently assaulted her in the kitchen of her home in Hereford in 1980 when she was 16.

The woman said she knew the musician, who was famous in the 1970s, through a man who ran a record shop in Hereford.

She said Harper paid a surprise visit to her home on an afternoon in late 1980 and she invited him in for a cup of tea. As she was putting the kettle on he approached her from behind and pressed himself against her, she told a jury at Worcester Crown Court.

She moved away and he went into the living room. When she went in with the tea, he was sitting in an armchair exposing himself and he started talking about sex. She made it clear she was not interested and he left, she told the jury.

She contacted police last year to make her allegation when she read reports that he had been charged with sexual offences against a young girl.

Harper, now of Rossmore, Clonakilty, Co Cork, Republic of Ireland, denies three charges of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child and two of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 all involving the same girl when she was aged 11 or 12 between August 31, 1975 and January 1, 1977 when he lived at The Vauld farm in Marden. He also denies one charge against the second woman of indecent assault dating from May 23, 1980 to January 1, 1981.

Cross-examined by Adrian Waterman, QC, she agreed she could have been aged 17 rather than 16 when the alleged incident took place but she denied a suggestion that she had earlier made a sexual advance to Harper at his farmhouse home. She also denied his suggestion that the alleged offence did not take place.

The jury has heard Harper was "on top of the world" in the music business in the 1970s and his Herefordshire farm was often visited by other musicians famous at the time but by the 1980s he was struggling financially.

The trial continues.