A TEENAGER was so traumatised after a sex attack on a plane flight she hid the truth from her family for two years.

Kelly Morris, aged 18, is sueing KLM airline for damages after she was attacked in 1998 while returning from the holiday of a lifetime in Kuala Lumpur.

But the former Sharples School pupil has only recently told family, including her grandfather, and friends about what happened after waiving her legal right to anonymity as the victim of a sexual assault.

Kelly was only 15 years old when her uncle, who was returning to Malaysia where he worked, invited her for a holiday.

Her parents, who ran the Bolton Castle pub in Tonge Moor, decided to treat Kelly to the holiday for her 16th birthday.

They paid £860 for the air ticket and made it clear Kelly was to be supervised at all times as an unaccompanied minor throughout her return trip.

But when her mum Christine went to collect Kelly from Manchester Airport she was stunned to find her daughter crying, trembling and unable to speak following the sexual assault.

Kelly had been placed in the centre of the plane on the return journey from Kuala Lumpur, next to two men and three hours into the flight awoke to find one of them assaulting her.

She immediately informed an air stewardess and was moved near to the front of the plane where she spent the entire 36-hour flight in tears.

The man responsible, who is believed to have been a Dutch man living in Australia, was arrested in Amsterdam, where the plane stopped en route from Malaysia, but it is not known whether he was charged. Kelly's mum, Christine Morris, said: "We've had a tough couple of years, but we hope that by Kelly going public, it will help others in the same situation.

"I've had to console her a lot and the court case has brought all the upset back for her.

"This was supposed to be a treat for Kelly and we just never dreamt something like this could happen.

"I was worried about her coming back on her own thinking she might get lost, but I never considered something like this."

Kelly, who now hopes to become a social worker, said: "I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now.

"I had a very stressful time after the attack and needed to see a psychiatrist."

Kelly, who has been seeing a local lad for almost 12 months, now lives in Urmston, Manchester, where her parents have a pub.

The two-day hearing at Bury County Court ended on Tuesday and the judge is expected to deliver his ruling within a week.

Christine Makinson from Kelly's solicitors, Kippax Beaumont Lewis, said: "As a result of this sexual assault Kelly has suffered psychiatric injury.

"However, the airline to whom Kelly was entrusted argues that, because of the wording of the 1929 Warsaw Convention, which governs all international carriers, she is unable to claim for her injuries as they are of a psychiatric nature rather than physical."

She added: "If a parent had made specific arrangements for their child to travel as an unaccompanied minor, one would assume that the airline carrying that child would be responsible for his or her well-being and liable should the child suffer an injury whatever its nature."