A WOMAN has told a jury how Martin Connolly used to put pornography on TV ‘like it was the Cartoon Network’ when she was a young child.

She used to frequently visit the house the 77-year-old, also known as Mark, shared with his partner Vera to escape a difficult upbringing at her family home, she said.

But from the age of four the woman, who repeatedly broke down in tears in the witness box, said he molested her and also put on pornographic movies for them to watch.

And she told Swindon Crown Court that ‘as soon as the cans came out’ she knew she was likely to see or hear things that she shouldn’t.

Connolly denies indecently assaulting both her and two other children as well as raping a fourth over a period of almost 40 years. He admits trying to rape a fifth child.

The girl, who is now a woman in her late twenties, said she first went to the police in December 2014 but soon after retracted the complaint because of family issues.

Simon Jones, prosecuting, asked if she had experienced doubts about the case.

She replied: “I am sat here now feeling guilty over something I haven’t done. It is never going to be easy.”

She told the court she had a poor upbringing and often visited Connolly’s house from a young age because of trouble at home with parents, who she said sold drugs.

But while she was at Connolly's she said she was subjected to sexual abuse at his hands, adding she was so young she knew no better.

As she got older she thought she had put it all behind her but after having flashbacks she decided to report it just over two years ago.

She said one of the other complainants was her best friend at the time and once, when they visited his Penhill Road home after drinking in the park as teenagers, she spotted him pawing the other girl.

Chris Smyth, defending, put to her that she was mistaken and that none of the abuse against her or the friend took place, which she refuted.

He also said while she may have caught his client watching a porn film he only had the one and never played it in front of her, which she also said was not correct.

She said: "He put porn on like it was the Cartoon Network. I didn't know better. I was six years old."

Connolly, whose 49-year-old daughter Alison was murdered in 2015, denies a series of alleged sex offences on three girls and one young boy.

It is said he indecently assaulted the lad, who was aged six or seven, between 1967 and 1969 at his then home on Ramsbury Avenue.

He is then accused of repeatedly raped and molesting one girl when she was aged from seven to 12, between 1989 and 1985.

It is further said he indecently assaulting two others: one between the ages of four and 11 in the 90s and the other when she was 13 or 14 between 2000 and 2002.

Connolly, now of Windmill Court, Uxbridge Road, Freshbrook, denies four counts of rape, seven of indecent assault, one indecency with a child and one of indecent assault of male child.

He has admitted attempted rape and two counts of indecent assault on another girl when she was 13 or 14 years old in the late 1970s.

He told the police that he had tried to rape her three to four times because he was ‘sexually frustrated’ at the time.

The case continues.