Girl, aged six to 12, was allegedly raped and abused by three generations of her family, court hears

A jury at Lewes Crown Court heard on Monday that a girl was sexually abused and physically assaulted by three generations of her own family from the age of six while her mother did not intervene, the prosecution told the court.

Prosecutor Jennifer Knight KC said the child, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was raped and sexually assaulted by her grandfather, father and two brothers between the ages of six and 12, and was repeatedly beaten, burned and neglected. The girl was placed in foster care in January after family members were arrested, the court was told.

Knight told jurors the girl first disclosed her fear of returning home to a teacher and later gave a three-hour recorded statement detailing the alleged abuse. The prosecution alleges that the child’s father beat her with a horse-whip, burned her with cigarettes, spat in her face and pulled her hair, and that the eldest brother began abusing her when she was six or seven and raped her from about the age of nine.

The court heard that the girl’s mother was aware of the sexual abuse but instead of protecting her child allegedly beat her, gagged and tied her, and locked her in a cupboard. Knight said the girl recalled being beaten with multiple implements, being burned with a candle and lighter, having salt rubbed into wounds to prevent healing, and being confined with her hands and feet bound and tape over her mouth.

Six relatives sat together in the dock charged with a total of 41 counts, including multiple counts of raping a child, sexual assault, actual bodily harm, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. All have pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution told the jury that after the family were arrested in January they pressured the child to change her account, with the mother allegedly telling her the family were suffering because of her disclosure and warning that the grandfather was "too old to be in prison for life." In later police interviews, the girl admitted to fabricating some allegations of physical abuse and said she had lied about being locked in the shoe cupboard, the court was told.

Knight said the child nevertheless maintained that the sexual assaults she had described — by her grandfather, father and brothers — were true. The prosecution suggested the detailed accounts the girl gave to police and social workers in January and March were truthful, but that she later recanted certain aspects under pressure and out of loyalty to her family.

Jurors were told the girl continued to tell social workers and police that she intended to change her evidence to protect relatives, saying she loved them and did not want to put them in a worse position. Knight said the prosecution believes the child found the pressure of revealing the truth about her family overwhelming.

Defence lawyers denied the allegations when the charges were read in court. No witnesses for the defence gave evidence in the prosecution opening on Monday.

The trial is ongoing. The case involves a vulnerable child and details heard in open court are subject to statutory reporting restrictions that prevent identifying the victim. Social services placed the child in foster care after the arrests, and police continue to investigate allegations of historic and recent abuse.

The proceedings form part of a wider legal and safeguarding process in which criminal charges, social work assessments and child protection mechanisms intersect. The court will hear further evidence, including witness statements and the recorded account the child provided, as the trial continues at Lewes Crown Court.