A trial has started at Oxford Crown Court for a man accused of sexually abusing a teen girl in the late 1990s.

John Westland, of Horseshoes Close, Appleton, near Abingdon, is on trial this week charged with historic child sex offences.

The 61-year-old is accused of engaging in sexual activity with a girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when she was 13 years of age.

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However, Westland has denied the offences and is expected to argue that he never touched the girl.

During the trial on Tuesday (October 15), the girl – who is now an adult – gave evidence from the stand after the jury heard her video-recorded evidence with police.

She told the jury that the alleged incidents had first been reported to police in the late 1990s but she had not discovered that Westland did not serve a prison sentence until 2022.

“The starting point was I found out he never went to prison,” she said. “When I found out he hadn’t gone to prison that’s when I pursued it.”

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Westland’s barrister, in cross-examination, asked if the complainant had first enquired with police about compensation from Westland.

She admitted she had asked but it was not the reason she had pursued criminal action.

The defence barrister also put to the woman that Westland had never ‘had sexual intercourse with her, take her to McDonald’s, take her to a park, or whistle at her window’.

“He did,” the woman replied to each statement.

At the end of her evidence, Judge Hassan Khan, who is presiding over the case, also asked the woman how often the alleged sexual assaults took place.

She replied that is occurred ‘loads and loads’.

“He did take my virginity,” she said. “[After that], it was every few days.”

The jury also heard a prepared statement from the complainant’s partner.

He wrote: “She first told me about [the alleged offences] about a year into our relationship.

“I do know she very, very upset whilst telling me. She’s never gone into massive detail about it but it happened when she was about 12 or 13.

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“He was a lot older than her. She told me it was reported to police at the time. [She] thought it had been dealt with at the time but only realised now that nothing came of it.

“She put in a complaint to police. I know she was really annoyed and angry that nothing was done.”

The trial continues this week and is expected to last five to six days.