A TOOTHILL man is said to have abused two girls after showing them pornographic films in his “man cave”.

John Whelan is alleged to have turned the abuse into games, including instructing one seven-year-old girl to play hide and seek with his private parts after covering his genitals with a blanket.

The 63-year-old denies indecent assault, rape of a child, oral rape of a child under-13, and sexual assault of a child under 13 by touching.

Opening the case for the prosecution at Swindon Crown Court on Thursday morning, David Scutt said the sexual abuse was allegedly carried out when the girls were aged between seven and 12 years old and perpetrated from the mid-90s to mid-2000s.

The older girl claimed Whelan had occasionally babysat her while her mother was out at work – and she had also been looked after at his family home.

Jurors were told he had arrived to babysit her at her home with what he called “special films” – pornography that he would make her watch while she sat on his lap. He was said to have molested her; touching her sexually and getting her to touch him.

The touching continued at his own home, as they played video games in his “man cave”, although he would not expose himself at the house. Mr Scutt told the jury: “She said this: ‘It was our secret, it was our little game’ and that, no doubt was what he was telling her as that young girl.”

As she got older she had refused to take part in the “games”, she claimed. When her mum switched work shifts the girl no longer needed to be babysat by the man. On the occasions she went around to his house she stayed close to her mum, Mr Scutt said.

The older girl said she had noticed Whelan taking an interest in another younger girl. They would both be called upstairs to watch TV in his bedroom. On occasion he would be wearing a towel, she claimed.

The younger girl claimed Whelan had begun sexually abusing her when she was around seven. She said the man had shown her pornographic playing cards and websites.

He had been grooming her, Mr Scutt told jurors. “He was getting her to look at it, this is to say the stuff on the computer, and what was described as his game; it was made into play for this young child. He would get her to look at videos, she said, and he told her what he wanted her to do.”

The girl claimed she had been made to touch him sexually and perform oral sex on him. On one occasion he raped her, she said. “[He said] he was going to make her happy like the ladies in the videos,” Mr Scutt said.

Interviewed by police last year, Whelan denied sexually assaulting the girls. He said the pornographic cards were his late father’s.

Whelan, of Stamford Close, Toothill, denies indecent assault, rape of a child, oral rape of a child under-13, and sexual assault of a child under 13 by touching. The trial continues.