A 46-YEAR-OLD Lydney man raped and sexually abused a young girl so frequently that it was difficult for her to recall each occasion, a jury was told today.

The sexual abuse by Andrew Aston, of Harrison Way, became a regular feature of her life, it was claimed at Gloucester Crown Court.

Prosecutor Don Tait said Aston's abuse of the girl went on from when she was about 10 until she was around 13.

"Initially it was indecent assault but it progressed to regularly having full sexual intercourse with her," said Mr Tait. "Due to the age she was at the time it is classed as rape."

Aston pleads not guilty to seven offences of indecently assaulting the girl – now a 27-year-old woman – and five of raping her between June 1994 and June 1996.

He also denies a charge of indecently assaulting another girl, aged 10, between May 2003 and May 2004.

Mr Tait told the jury that Mr Aston's alleged offences began when his principal victim was 10 and living in Bream.

"The defendant would sit next to her on the sofa and put his arm around her and deliberately stroke her," alleged Mr Tait.

"She thinks he was then in his twenties. She didn't tell anyone about it until May 2011."

Mr Tait said the girl used to sleep in an outhouse which had been converted into a bedroom at her home and it was there that the defendant visited her at night and abused her.

At one stage, he said, the girl's mother became suspicious and questioned her daughter, who 'forcefully and tearfully denied that anything was going on.'

It was just before the girl's 12th birthday, after she had moved with her family to Mitcheldean, that Aston first told her that he wanted full sex with her, Mr Tait said.

"She told the police that thereafter he had sex with her regularly, every other weekend, and it became a regular feature of her life."

Later, the girl's family moved to Coleford but the sexual abuse continued there, Mr Tait said.

The girl told police that she finally stood up to Mr Aston and brought the abuse to an end just before her 14th birthday when she got a boyfriend and felt able to challenge her abuser.

Mr Tait said the single charge involving another girl allegedly occurred when Aston put his arms around her and rubbed her bottom.

He said the principal victim had written about her abuse by Aston in her diary at the time of the offences.

r Tait said Mr Aston was arrested on May 17 last year and denied all the allegations.

The trial continues.