Los Angeles, Sep 27 (IANS): In a shock revelation, 'Murder on the Dancefloor' singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor has said she was raped at the age of 17 by an older man, who was 29 at that time.

Ellis-Bextor was invited into her alleged attacker's flat after meeting at a gig. The 'Take me home' and 'Wild forever' song-maker was studying history for A-Level at the time. The man had said he would show her his study books, but things soon escalated, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Now 42, the singer said: "Jim and I started kissing and before I knew it we were on his bed and he took off my knickers. I heard myself saying 'No' and 'I don't want to', but it didn't make any difference.

"He didn't listen to me and he had sex with me and I felt so ashamed. It was how I lost my virginity and I felt stupid. I remember staring at Jim's bookcases and thinking: I just have to let this happen now."

The singer said he was never "violent" with her, but she now feels the need for her voice to be heard, 25 years on.

She added: "My experience was not violent. All that happened was I 'wasn't listened to'. Of the two people there, one said yes, the other said no, and the yes person did it anyway. The older I've become, the more stark that 29-year-old man ignoring 17-year-old me has seemed."

Ellis-Bextor has no plans to "name and shame" her alleged rapist.

In an extract of her autobiography 'Spinning Plates', she said: "I've asked myself why it's important to write about these experiences. Why go over something that wasn't very pleasant? Why make it public?

"But I think if you experience something you know is wrong, then being brave and honest about it helps, and if anyone else has been through something similar, it might help us all talk about it.

"But that's not all. It's also because I was silent about it for so long. It started to feel like I'm being complicit. I wasn't heard when I was 17, but I think I'll be heard now."