A WOMAN told a jury at Bradford Crown Court how she was pushed into a working chest freezer when only around three years of age.

Now in middle-age, the woman said her abuser sat on the freezer as she screamed to be released.

Speaking first via video-link and later behind a screen in court, she recounted how she was forced to watch an older boy and girl being bent over a settee and beaten with a fishing rod on their bare buttocks.

She also said she was abused in a shed along with the boy.

George Roberts, 67, of Woodhouse Drive, Woodhouse, Keighley, denies 23 offences allegedly committed against three children in the 1970s and 1980s.

He has pleaded not guilty to 15 offences of indecency with a child, seven of indecent assault and a single offence of incitement to commit buggery.

Roberts denies any wrongdoing in what has been dubbed the ‘pick a card’ case where it is claimed the victims were told to pick a card to see which of them was going to perform sex acts on him.

Roberts told the police his three accusers, a man and two women, could be hoping to claim compensation.

The younger of the two women said the defendant was often naked and ‘put the fear of God into her’.

Defending Roberts, Rebecca Young asked: “Did you ever say no to him?”

“He gave me money and sweets,” said the woman.

“He also struck fear into me. I was made to feel as though it was my fault. It was as if it was my dirty little secret.”

She said there was an occasion in a shed where Roberts was naked from the waist down. She was with the boy because he was ‘showing her what to do’.

“It was a constant stream of abuse,” she said.

The second woman, via video link, said she and the boy were hit with a fishing rod and a belt on their bare buttocks. “We were told to pull our pants down. It happened to me around four times.”

She also said the defendant was often naked.