A woman has told a court she was sexually abused by a police officer over a period of seven years.

The woman alleged that, when she was a young girl, the former officer would sexually assault her, make her watch pornographic videos and on one occasion attempted to rape her.

John Clack, 53, from Earlham Court in Norwich, stands accused of 14 offences, including attempted rape, indecent assault and indecency, which date from August 1997 to April 2004. He denies the allegations.

During Clack's trial at Norwich Crown Court yesterday, the woman, who can not be identified for legal reasons, said: 'He was inappropriate and abusive. He would do things that I, at that age, shouldn't have been doing.' She added: 'I have blocked it out for so many years. I was ashamed. I didn't want to tell anyone.'

As a child she wrote in her notebook, 'I hate being raped', but the alleged offences only came to light after she told police about them last year. She was also quizzed by officers in 2004 in a video interview, but did not give full details of what happened.

'I wanted it to go away,' she said. 'I wanted it to all disappear. 'Because Mr Clack had been a police officer I didn't trust police officers in general so I didn't want them anywhere near me.'

She added that it was not until last year that she felt strong enough to return to the police.

Andrew Shaw, defending Clack, told her the allegations were 'easy to make but hard to defend'.

He said: 'He (Clack) says that you have made this all up.'

Mr Shaw questioned why she could not remember the first time Clack allegedly assaulted her and why there were some differences between her evidence and her witness statement.