A 50-year-old Cinderford man sexually abused his stepdaughter for 17 years from the age of just four, a Gloucester jury heard.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has denied 14 allegations of sexual abuse against the victim who is now an adult.

The woman, who agreed to testify in the trial at Gloucester Crown Court, gave a harrowing description of the alleged abuse inflicted on her by her stepfather, from the age of four up to about 20.

The jury of eight men and four women were warned that they would have to suspend emotion before hearing the full extent of the allegations.

The jury was shown a video recording of her police interview in July 2016 when she outlined her abuse allegations.

“When I was about four-years-old, and my mum was out at a driving lesson.

He picked me up and touched me,” she said.

He put his hands up my nightie, and he just touched my legs and my... I don’t really know what to call it,” the woman said.”

The woman said that after the first time she alleges he touched her, she had a conversation with her mother the following day, which she said was ’confusing’ after being told: "I shouldn’t touch anybody’s parts."

The woman added: “My mother talked to me in general about how my parts are my parts and other people’s parts are theirs, nobody should touch mine and I shouldn’t touch anybody else’s.”

Prosecutor Jenny Tallentire said: “The charges date from May 1998 to May 2012. The indictment stops when she became 18, although we say the relationship continued until she was 20.”

The stepfather was interviewed by the police in July 2016. He chose not to answer any questions, but gave a prepared statement which included the phrase: “I am shocked by these allegations and deny each and every one.”

The prosecutor stated that the Crown’s case was that the man has accepted that he had a relationship with the girl and added: "He has crossed a line, she was his stepdaughter. He is the one responsible to ensure that line remains in place.

The trial continues.