A MAN has gone on trial accused of a dozen sex offences against three girls and a boy.

Edward Wakelin, 35, of Humfrey Road, Barton, Oxford, appeared at Oxford Crown Court today, facing five charges of sexual assault on a child under 13, six charges of indecent assault of a child and one of indecency with a child.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between March 1995 and December 2008.

Wakelin denies all of the charges.

Neil Moore, prosecuting, said that Wakelin intimately touched the children and on one occasion performed a sex act in front of two of them.

Mr Moore told the jury that despite a significant age gap, Wakelin became a “shoulder to cry on” for one vulnerable girl and molested her “on a number of occasions”.

The girl, who is now an adult, is named in six of the charges relating to alleged offences between 1995 and 2000.

Giving evidence, she told the court: “There’s only a couple of incidents I really remember.

“The rest is all a blur. I think I’ve blocked it out of my mind.”

Asked if she understood what was happening at the time, she replied: “Not really. I just thought it was normal.

“If I’m honest, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the attention, because I wasn’t getting it from my family.

“I don’t feel that now. I feel sick.

“I know it’s wrong, because now I know everything that he did, what it was. Now I see that it’s wrong.”

The jury heard that on one occasion the girl and a friend had seen Wakelin performing a sex act and had run to tell their parents. Under cross examination by Jeannie Mackie, defending, the girl admitted falsely telling her parents that Wakelin had pulled her knickers down during the same incident.

The girl said: “I was a bit different when I was younger.

“I used to try and make things sound a lot worse than they were, to try and set him up.”

Miss Mackie said: “I’m suggesting that at no point did he ever (perform a sex act) in front of you.”

“That’s a lie, he did,” she replied.

Asked why she did not tell anyone about the incidents until 2003, she said: “He was my friend and I didn’t want to betray a friend.”

She added: “I felt responsible for what had happened. I feel like it was all my fault.

“I could have done something to stop it, but I didn’t.”

The case continues.