An elderly man is on trial at Oxford Crown Court accused of sexually assaulting a young girl in the late 1990s.

Michael Stockhouse, 63, has been on trial since the start of last week charged with historic child sex offences against a girl who cannot be named for legal reasons.

It is alleged that the offences took place across several addresses, including in Bicester, when the girl was younger than 10.

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Stockhouse, of Elterwater Drive in Gamston, Nottingham, has denied the offences – claiming the complainant has made the allegations up.

During the trial on Thursday (September 12) last week, the prosecution called a witness who claimed the girl admitted Stockhouse had sexually assaulted her in a letter when she was 12 years of age.

The woman, who we’ve decided not to name, told the jury: “I went into the bedroom…and it was on the dressing table and I picked it up as I could see through it that it [was addressed to me].

“[It said]…'I’m running away as Mike has raped me'. I did read it and then I shouted to [her], I wanted her to come upstairs, which she did.

"I said, ‘What the hell is this? And she burst into tears and ran straight downstairs and locked herself in the bathroom and I couldn't get her for a long time.”

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The woman claims she had then called Stockhouse who came over to the house after the letter had been read.

She continued: “We were both upstairs, we saw him turn up. He stormed into the bedroom and said, ‘She dreamt it all’.

“It was through the doorway, one, two steps and ‘she dreamt it’ and that was it.”

The woman claimed Stockhouse had then screwed up the letter and thrown it away.

“I told him I’d phone the police,” she said.

“His response was, ‘They’ll never believe her, she’s got no evidence, she dreamt it’.”

Another witness, who we have decided not to name, took the stand the following day.

She told the jury she felt ‘shocked and disgusted’ when she found out about the allegations.

Addressing the jury, she said: “Throughout the years, and I can’t be specific, she’s told me that Mike has sexually assaulted her in Bicester.

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“All she said was that he had his hand under the duvet.

"She then said that outside of him putting his hand under the duvet and touching her that he had tried to rape her but she was able to fight him off.

“I think she was 11 the first time it happened.”

The trial continues.