So the girls often suffer in silence, but with a long face that often perplexes their exasperated host families.Lucy Laven, 19, came to England from France last year. One night, the mother of her host family had to leave her alone with the husband and child while she visited family. Speaking from Deauville in Normandy, Lucy says: "It was very direct, very clear that he wanted to have sex. But he was drunk, so I didn't take it seriously."The second time his wife left us alone, it was for a whole week, and it was worse because he wasn't drunk. He wanted to sleep with me, would come into my room when I was in bed I couldn't lock the door The child was in the next room. It was very upsetting."Why didn't I phone my mother? I didn't want her to come rushing to fetch me! But I decided that I had to change family."His wife was a very nice woman I couldn't tell her the truth when I left It was too awful for her And my agency didn't help at all. I had to find my own family."But it's not all cold gruel and a monastic cell in the attic.

Some of the misery is less dramatic and perhaps as much a fault of the au pair and agencies as of the employer.Most au pairs come from families where they are treasured children, where their mother lies awake at night waiting to hear the key in the lock, where their laundry gets done, and where someone cares whether they're eating enough.Before they come over, the girls are often led to believe that their role will be like that of "the big sister in the family". But what host families really want is a cheerful workhorse who will do her own thing and keep out of the way when not on duty. They have children of their own and don't need an adolescent princess to tend to as well.And so the girls are often hurt and bewildered by what they perceive as callous indifference on the part of their host families.Simone Schulz, 23, says that her "English" family has never shown the slightest bit of interest in her "I'm not integrated into the family at all," she says "You expect them to pay some attention to you But I'm just a cheap nanny. No one talks to you except about what you are doing with the child. They don't know anything about my background or my experiences or my family."Pastor Udo Bauer of the German YMCA in London says: "It's often a problem with communication.

The girls are young and insecure when they arrive, and so are unable to speak frankly to the families about any difficulties. And, in the English way, the families often approach problems in a very polite, roundabout manner, with veiled and hidden hints about transgressions. The girls don't understand, and are very surprised after three weeks to find themselves on the street."But the au pair's lot is not all misery and misunderstanding, according to Pastor Bauer. "There was a girl who was placed in the awkward position by her host family of having to choose between a Mercedes and a BMW as her car. The family said 'Since you're going to have to drive it, you may as well choose it'!" Some of the names in this article have been changed. A Liberal Democrat MP said today he is taking M15 to a tribunal in a bid to get legal access to files they may hold on him. A Liberal Democrat MP said today he is taking M15 to a tribunal in a bid to get legal access to files they may hold on him. Norman Baker, a former environmental campaigner, aims to challenge his rights under the Data Protection Act to see any information the security and intelligence service M15 may have on him.He said M15 have argued they have a blanket exemption of the grounds of national security."I think it is important to establish a principle.

The data protection legislation applies to the security services as it does to any other organisation run by the state which holds information on an individual," the Lewes MP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme."There are cases where it would be important in terms of national security where information is not given out, I quite accept that."But that should be done on a case by case basis with the Home Secretary authorising a refusal to disclose rather than a blanket exemption which the security services are trying to put on."I think it is entirely appropriate to test the limits to which information on individuals can be held without those individuals knowing," he said."If there is information held on people whose files are closed ... it is perfectly proper for that information to be given out to those individuals."The official reply I have had from M15, which is why I am taking it to a tribunal, is to say that M15 intends to register with data protection legislation," he added.. One of Britain's most senior police officers put his hand up the skirt of a female colleague and indecently assaulted her, before wishing her a "Happy Christmas", a court was told yesterday. One of Britain's most senior police officers put his hand up the skirt of a female colleague and indecently assaulted her, before wishing her a "Happy Christmas", a court was told yesterday. The attack was one of fourindecent assaults allegedly carried out by Ian Beckett, the Deputy Chief Constable ofSurrey, against two civilian employees at the force's headquarters in Guildford. Mr Beckett believed he would get away with the assaults, committed in December 1998, because the women would be too scared to complain, Southwark Crown Court in London was told. The 54-year-old officer from Lyne, near Chertsey, Surrey, denies all the charges and will argue that the two women, known as Miss X and Y for legal reasons, are liars, according to Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, for the prosecution.The day before the most serious incident, which allegedly happened on Christmas Eve, Mr Beckett telephoned Miss X and asked her "whether she should wear her red underwear for him", the court was told. The following morning he called her into his office, put his arms around her and allegedly put his left hand up her skirt.Ms Bennett-Jenkins said: "She told him, 'No please, I have no energy to fight you', a reference to a medical condition.