AN 89-year-old man accused of seven counts of sex abuse has been bailed.

Alfred Chapman, of Dorchester Drive, in London, entered no plea at Southend Magistrates’ Court to two counts of raping a girl under the age of 13, and four counts of indecently assaulting a girl aged under 14 years, all in Billericay, in the late Sixties and early Seventies.

He will next appear at Basildon Crown Court in the new year.