A 31-YEAR-OLD Bradford man is on trial accused of repeatedly raping and sexually abusing a schoolgirl.

Paul Holt denies 11 offences involving the child when she was aged eight to 11 years.

Holt, of Whytecote End, Wyke, was arrested after the girl told a teacher what he had done to her, prosecutor Philip Standfast told a jury at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Holt told the police he had never touched the child inappropriately and was innocent of all the allegations.

He is accused of sexually assaulting the girl on one occasion when she was eight-year-old and then raping and sexually abusing her when she was aged nine to 11.

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He faces nine offences of rape of a child under 13 and one of assault by penetration.

Mr Standfast said the girl approached her school teacher in September last year and confided in her about the abuse after a lesson on sex education and being safe.

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She went on to tell the police Holt would take off his clothes and put his hand over her mouth while raping her.

"He always told me not to tell anyone and that no-one would believe me anyway," she said in a recorded interview with specialist officers.

"He tried to trick me and give me stuff to make it go away."

The girl went on: "I let it happen because I was so scared of what would happen. Sometimes he would smack me first and then do it."

She said she hated what he was doing to her and she would cry afterwards.

"I was disgusted with myself, and with him. I felt like hurting myself when it happened," she said.

She said she was first abused when Holt rubbed her private parts indecently when she was eight.

He later began raping her on a regular basis and made her perform oral sex on him when she got older.

She told her teacher about it because Holt had raped her a few days before the sex education lesson and she could not face it happening again, she said.

The girl's teacher said in a statement read to the court that the child was stressed and anxious when she described what Holt had allegedly done to her.

The woman said that all pupils at the school were urged to tell a member of staff if they were being abused.

Holt will give evidence in his defence tomorrow.

The trial continues.