A convicted child rapist has gone on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of sexually attacking a babysitter after grooming her with cash and gifts.

Michael Marshman, 53, forcibly took the virginity of a teenager caring for his three children at his Bradford home in the late 1990s, a jury was told.

Marshman, then living in the Eccleshill area, denies two counts of rape and three of indecently assaulting a girl aged about 15.

Prosecutor Richard Woolfall told the court yesterday that Marshman had previously been convicted of raping another girl. Marshman had admitted in 2004 that he raped another girl between 1999 and 2003, when she was aged 11 to 15.

Mr Woolfall said that the current trial involved a girl then aged 14 or 15 who visited Marshman’s home a few times to babysit. It is alleged that Marshman twice raped the girl and went on to sexually molest her on three occasions.

Mr Woolfall said the girl, now in her late 20s, did not contact the police until 2010 because she had felt unable to confide in anyone at the time.

The jury was told that Marshman gave her £30 and cigarettes to babysit for him and his wife on the first occasion she went to the house.

She was expecting £10 and he told her not to tell his wife about the overpayment.

“He was grooming her. He was getting her onside so that he could go on and do things to her,” Mr Woolfall said.

He said Marshman, who collected coins, gave her a gold sovereign before raping her the next time she agreed to babysit.

Mr Woolfall said Marshman raped her again when she was babysitting. He put his hand over her mouth after telling her he loved her. She wanted to tell her mother but did not think she would be believed.

When Marshman, now of Caldicott Close, Todmorden, was arrested, he told the police he could not recall the teenager coming to the house and said nothing sexual had ever happened between them.

The woman, whose police statement was played to the court by video link, said she scrubbed herself with bleach after Marshman raped her.

She said he always paid her more money than he was meant to. She told police she was a virgin until Marshman raped her.

The trial continues.