A lodger allegedly groomed a vulnerable 10-year-old girl before subjecting her to three years of abuse.
Alan Dart was offered an attic room in the girl’s home and allegedly had sex with her after persuading her to join him in the converted loft.
The activity allegedly started with kissing and touching but moved on as the girl grew older until they had sex when she was just 11, Exeter Crown Court was told.
A relationship developed between them but the girl covered up for him and lied to police when concerns were raised about it at the time, the jury were told.
Dart, aged 30, of Hampton Street, Plymouth, denies five counts of child rape, five of sexual assault, and two of sexual activity with a child.
Mr Sean Brunton, prosecuting, said the abuse started when Dart moved into her mother’s home in Newton Abbot in the late 2000s and continued until he was ordered to leave when she was 13.
He had a room in an attic where the girl went to play video games with him and a friendship started which developed into an inappropriate sexual one.
Mr Brunton said: ’It started with a tentative kiss and touching of her private parts when she was about 10 and ultimately progressed to a regular and frequent physical relationship in which he used her for sex on an almost daily basis.
’She described all these events as confusing and horrible. He manipulated her into performing increasingly serious sexual acts. She says he was rough and it was horrible.’
In the early days he invited her up to his room at nights and she would pretend to be asleep when he touched her. He cajoled her into further sex acts and in time she came to believe she was in love with him and they were in a relationship.
Social workers and the police raised concerns because they were seen around so much together but when she was interviewed at the time she denied there was anything going on between them.
Dart made no comment in two police interviews but he now says all the allegations are fabricated and that no sexual activity of any sort took place.