A TRIAL has started for a man accused of sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl when he was a teenager.

Ashley Day, 25, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with two counts of child sex abuse which allegedly started taking place in 2015.

He is accused of kissing a girl and forcing her to touch his penis – which he denies.

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He was subsequently charged with one count of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity on at least 20 occasions as well as one count of sexual activity with a child under 13.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was aged seven when the alleged abuse started.

If involved, Day would have been about 16 years old.

Day, of Bellenger Way, Carterton, denied the offences. He is expected to tell a jury he ‘doesn’t know’ if the girl was sexually abused but it was not him.

Opening the trial on Monday (August 12), prosecuting barrister David Parvin said: “In 2020, [the girl] described to her close friends and also to her mother that she had been sexually abused when she was younger.

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“[The girl] alleged that she was around seven years old in 2015…Mr Day would come into her room when no one else was around and would make comments to her and one a number of occasions he would kiss her and on some occasions that included using his tongue.

“She also alleges that he would come into her bedroom…and use his hand to masturbate his penis.

“[The girl alleges] this abuse continued for a significant period of time. That’s really what the case is about.”

He continued: “The prosecution’s case is [the girl] is telling the truth about the abuse and the identify of the person who abused her.

“Mr Day denies abusing [the girl] and his defence is expected to be that he doesn’t know if she was abused but her certainly denies that it was him.”

Mr Parvin told the twelve-strong jury that the ‘burden of proof’ is on the prosecution to prove and not the defendant.

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He also explained that because of the complainant’s age, her evidence was video recorded and the jury will not hear any live evidence from her.

“Normally witnesses would come to court and give live evidence but because [of her] young age, the entirety of the evidence was recorded,” he said.

The trial is expected to last about four to five days.

It is unknown how long the jury will take to deliberate.