A woman has told how a carer at a childrens’ home
A woman has told how a carer at a childrens’ home molested her from the age of six and raped her in a garden shed at eleven.
The 38 year-old claimed William Starling, 74, continued his abuse even after she left St Leonards Home in Hornchurch, Essex, and moved back with her parents.
She said he told her nobody would believe her because she was a ‘problem child.
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Starling allegedly preyed on twelve children at two childrens homes in Essex between 1965 and 1984.
Seven girls and two boys were targeted at St Leonards’ Childrens Home in Hornchurch, Essex and two girls were residents at The Greensteads in Basildon.
One girl became Starling’s victim at her own home, it was claimed.
The woman told the jury how the first incident began when Starling allegedly came into her bedroom at Forbes Cottage in St Leonards and indecently assaulted her under the bedclothes.
She was six years old.
He would then make her kiss another girl’s body and touch him.
It moved on to rape after Starling and his wife Daphne took them swimming in the resident pool, the prosecution claim.
The woman said: ‘I was ten or eleven.
I liked swimming and I always wanted to go swimming.
‘Bill asked me to go to the shed.
He made me sit on a wooden thing and asked me to take my knickers off.
‘I said I don’t want it no more.
I didn’t want it any more.
I was hurting.
He said he would not be long.
‘Then he told me to go into his cottage and sit there for a while.
I was crying.
He said that noone would believe me.
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The abuse continued when she returned home on his frequent visits to see her until the age of 13.
She said: ‘He used to give my mum some money and he knew my dad liked a drink.
He gave him some money to go down to the pub and my mum would go to the market.
‘He used to say noone would believe us.
We were just kids.
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Starling, of Falbere, School Lane, Surlingham, Norfolk, denies all 25 allegations against him and claims they have all been invented by the children involved in the case.
The first victim was allegedly indecently assaulted twice between 1965 and 1976.
A second girl was allegedly indecently assaulted between 1968 and 1972 and raped twice between 1972 and 1976.
A third was indecently assaulted between 1975 and 1978.
A boy was allegedly buggered twice and indecently assaulted between 1977 and 1984.
A second boy was indecently assaulted and buggered between 1969 and 1973.
A fourth girl under the age of 16 was indecently assaulted between 1970 and 1971, a fifth twice between 1971 and 1973, a sixth three times between 1973 and 1982 and a seventh three times between 1974 and 1978.
Starling allegedly committed indecency with another girl indecently assaulted her between 1977 and 1983.
The ninth girl was indecently assaulted and buggered between 1984 and 1986.
His final victim was indecently assaulted and raped between 1983 and 1987.
The trial continues.
ends
