AN OXFORD man accused of 12 sex offences against children claimed today that he acted as a shoulder for them to cry on.

Edward Wakelin, 35, told the jury at Oxford Crown Court that one girl was neglected and ran around naked in the street while her mother took drugs at her home.

Wakelin, of Humfrey Road, Barton, denies five charges of sexual assault on a child under 13, six charges of indecent assault against a child and one charge of indecency with a child.

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

Wakelin, a former driver at the Oxford Bus Company and hospital porter at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, was giving evidence in his defence.

He said: “I was looking out for them, because there were drugs in the house and I just wanted to keep an eye on them.

“I was there if she needed me. We played games together like blind man’s buff or kicked a football around together. Her mother was upstairs, high on drugs.”

He added: “I was a shoulder to cry on.”

Wakelin said the girl had no toys and he gave her a bag of toy cars from his collection.

Last Wednesday, jurors were told abuse suffered by a six-year-old girl made her “not want to live”.

In a taped interview, she added: “He used to touch me and make me touch him in places.”

The case continues.