A MAN aged 62 is on trial accused of sexually abusing a child dancer during a stage musical more than 30 years ago.

Paul Marsden is said to have indecently assaulted the youngster while lifting her during the public performances.

She says Marsden, of Daisy Hill Back Lane, Bradford, repeatedly molested her.

He denies one allegation of attempted rape and six counts of indecent assault involving the girl and a single charge of indecently assaulting a second girl, aged 16, at around the same time.

Prosecutor Kate Batty told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that the sexual abuse began when Marsden and the girl were performing together in a musical.

The jury was told the teenager was waiting in the wings to go on stage in her leotard.

She was not wearing underwear because she had been told it would look “unprofessional”.

It is claimed that Marsden indecently assaulted her and then repeatedly abused her under her skirt when lifting her in front of the theatre audience.

“She felt there was nothing she could do about it. It was in public during the performance,” Mrs Batty said.

The complainant says that Marsden sexually assaulted her at his home following the “after show “party on the final night of the musical.

She was lying on the hearth rug in her vest and pants when he touched her indecently and made her touch him, the court heard.

The jury heard that the girl was regularly abused in Marsden’s bathroom and kitchen and on theme park rides.

He showed her a book with people having sex in it and told her: “This is what we are going to do when you are 15,” it is alleged.

Marsden is accused of attempting to rape the girl on three or four occasions after pushing her head into a cardboard box.

She told the police he became more violent and she would say the Lord’s Prayer while he was sexually assaulting her.

She said he would walk around his home wearing nothing but bright pink Y-fronts.

The court was told that she wrote a letter to Marsden accusing him of wrecking her childhood after seeing him by chance in a restaurant.

Marsden called the police and she was spoken to and persuaded not to make a complaint, it is alleged.

The second complainant says Marsden touched her inappropriately on one occasion when she was waiting for a dance lesson.

The trial continues.