A woman has told a jury how she wanted revenge on a Bradford councillor she claims sexually abused her as a youngster.

Bob Hargreaves, 62, a councillor for the Bolton and Undercliffe ward, is on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of molesting two 11-year-old girls in the early 1990s.

One of his alleged victims told the jury yesterday how she felt sick when she saw Hargreaves in the street ten years after the alleged abuse which she claims ended when he tried to have sex with her.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the court she decided she would track Hargreaves down.

She said: "I just wanted to confront him and ask him, Why?' I wanted to tell him that he had ruined my life.

"My intention was to make him suffer. I wanted him to be ruined, I wanted to destroy him.

"I was angry, upset. I wanted to torture him. I wanted to hurt him any way I could. I wanted to cause as much destruction and I wanted to ruin his life."

The jury were told that during a phone call between the pair Hargreaves is alleged to have offered the woman money and in a later conversation taped by both she said she wanted £18,000.

The jury heard the tapes during which the woman agreed she was blackmailing him and threatened to put his picture up all around Bradford with the word "paedophile".

"Now I realise I did not approach it in the right way," she said.

"I should have taped the first conversation and then just gone to the police, but I didn't."

Hargreaves, of Buttermere Road, Bolton, has denied all the allegations and has pleaded not guilty to six counts of indecency with a child, six of indecent assault and a charge of attempted rape.

He claims he was being blackmailed by the woman and after he was arrested in 2004 denied he had had any sexual contact with either complainant.

The woman told the court she developed a phobia with eating after the alleged abuse and suffered other psychological problems.

She said she thought she was to blame because Hargreaves had given her money each time he abused her.

Asked by prosecutor Sharon Beattie why she did not tell anyone what was happening at the time, she said: "There's a lot of reasons why I didn't tell anybody.

"One part of it was that I was ashamed. Because I had taken money from him I believed that it was just as much my fault as it was his."

The complainant was questioned by police at the time but told them that nothing had been happening and denied she had been to the butcher's shop after closing time when the abuse is said to have taken place.

The jury were told the alleged abuse continued to affect the woman whose business had problems because she was taking time off and losing customers.

She said: "I just kept thinking about what had happened and it would not go away, it would not leave me alone.

"It was just going round and round and I started to have panic attacks. I was suffering from anxiety and depression."

Hargreaves was suspended from the Liberal Democrats when the charges arose and has not been carrying out his council duties.

The trial continues.

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