MAY:CHILDREN’S HOME WORKER GROOMED GIRLS

A care home worker accused of raping two teenagers in the 1980s groomed them by showing them pornography, a court heard.

David May, 66, allegedly ‘took a liking’ to the youngsters when they were in care at the children’s home he worked at in Plaistow, east London, between 1980 and 1987.

He would slip them cigarettes, let them play on computer games and even smoked weed with them, it is said.

One of the girls was only 13 when May allegedly assaulted her following a cycling trip.

He later raped one of the girls at his flat in Poplar and abused the other in a room full of mirrors, the court heard.

May is also said to have attacked the girls in a photographic dark room set up  in the children’s home.

A childhood friend of one of the girls told Snaresbrook Crown Court: ‘She told me that one of the staff members had taken a liking to her and her friend, they had joined the club – when we were in the children’s home there was lots of clubs for us to join to interact with other people, she joined the photography club and the bike riding club.

‘The staff member running this club, he used to take them to his house, he gave them weed to smoke, he seemed like a friend, so he was not a strict or a horrible person and they trusted him.

‘She told me that on one occasion he showed them a dirty book of women doing things with bananas – I don’t remember where they were when he showed them that book, I assumed that they were at his house because that’s where they smoked the weed.’

‘On another occasion the Dave May took her to and the other girl to him home and he played with their chests and lay down between them.’

According to the witness, who is now in her 40s, May told the two girls his abuse of them would make their chests grow.

‘He would take pictures of them, I told her ‘Don’t go, don’t join these clubs’ because sometimes in a children’s home you end up in situations with staff members that you don’t want to be in.

‘She didn’t listen, she thought Dave May was a nice person, he gave them weed to smoke and some young people want to smoke weed, they think it is good.’

She told the court that May had given her friend jewellery for Christmas and some of his own aftershave to wear.

The witnessed claimed that she had told her friend at the time May had only given her the aftershave so that no one would be suspicious if she smelled like him, and so no one would smell cannabis on her.

‘She thought he was doing something nice for her but he was just being dirty.’

One of the girls first complained to the police in 1985 but he was not charged until the second victim came forward nearly 30 years later after news broke of the Jimmy Saville scandal.

‘Somehow it had got out in our home that there had been some sexual activity between Dave May and [my friend], they were spoken to, I think by police but definitely by staff.

‘But [my friend] said it had nothing to do with her, I think she was very embarrassed because she realised there was something wrong.

‘I said ‘He doesn’t like you, it’s not normal, it’s not good’.’

‘In those days in care there was a lot of abuse, not that you wanted it to happen but you could take yourself out of situations – some things are not your fault but you can take yourself away from them even though you are the child.

‘You know these things are happening so don’t go to these place, don’t go to those [activity] clubs.’

The two women are still close, and the witness told Snaresbrook Crown Court that the alleged victim is now godmother to her son.

Christian Moll, prosecuting, said May had convinced the girls to keep the abuse as a ‘dirty secret’.

May, of King Street, Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes, denies three counts of rape and three counts of indecent assault.

The trial continues.