The account of the rape was both detailed and harrowing, writes REG LITTLE. But there could be no doubting the degree of trust that had come to exist between the pretty dark-haired woman and the softly spoken middle-aged man.

The victim, reliving the nightmare, spoke movingly about the feelings of shame and the terrible effect on a previously happy marriage, while the researcher nodded, scribbling the odd note.

But even as the hour-long interview came to a close, it hardly seemed credible that it was the man in his 40s who was the rape victim, with the 26-year-old woman from Oxford University doing the listening.

Many women have written about rape over the years. But few can have encountered the kind of victims that Stephanie Chester meets. For she is engaged in research that is almost unique because it involves a crime that for all its brutality continues to go unreported.

"While date rape, rape within marriage, incest, and paedophilia have all hit the headlines, sexual assault of men remains largely hidden," said Stephanie, a DPhil student at Oxford University's Centre for Criminological Researcher. "There is no systematic information available about men who have been raped, nor about the experiences of this group within the criminal justice system."

More than 50 adult male victims of rape have confided in the former probation officer, now based at Nuffield College. And the results of her work promise to give a frightening new insight into a rarely reported form of sexual assault.

One of the most shocking revelations is the response of many wives and partners. For the initial findings suggest that in some cases heterosexual men do not receive support when they confide in their spouses - instead they find themselves being accused of experimenting with homosexuality.

Other women simply choose not to continue a relationship with a man they felt was "emotionally vulnerable" and then there is additional fear of contracting Aids.

Even the long-standing partners of homosexual victims can end up accusing the victim of having an "extra-marital" affair, that somehow went wrong. Stephanie said: "The culmination of all this is that men find it difficult to admit they have been raped. Many try to forget it ever happened to them.

"But this denial frequently leads to self-harming behaviour including alcohol and drug addiction, suicide attempts, sexual impotency and aggression in subsequent relationships or at work. One of the myths is that it only happens in institutions like prisons and care homes. But all the people I interviewed were out in the community.

"Yes, some were homeless and male prostitutes. But there were also managing directors and an international marketing executive."

This reluctance to report the crime means the full extent of male rape is unknown. But Stephanie has no doubt that it is far more prevalent than previously thought.

For while heterosexual men often fail to report sexual assaults by other men for fear of being labelled gay, homosexual men fear an unsympathetic response from the police.

Her work for the research centre will also focus on the types of support that victims can turn to and where they might be believed.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.