A MAN sexually abused two schoolgirls during an eight-year period, a court heard yesterday.

Wayne Bruce, 50, sexually assaulted one of the victims for the first time after he lured her to woods in Vange, when she was just eight years old.

Anthony Abell, prosecuting, said Bruce attempted to rape the child, in Vange, about three years later.

Mr Abell said Bruce was repeatedly raping the child from the time she was about 12 years old.

He said: "He would usually say to her that people would believe, if it ever came out, that the abuse was her fault and she would be the one taken away if anyone got to hear about it.

"She believed him, young as she was.

"He had systematically abused her since the age of eight."

Bruce, of Rettendon Gardens, Wickford, also targeted a second schoolgirl and indecently assaulted her on three separate occasions.

When Bruce was arrested on April 24, 2006, he denied the allegations and after a brief break during his police interview, Bruce claimed he had just spoken to his mother and been told his father had died two hours earlier.

The interview was stopped immediately and the defendant was released on bail. However, the court heard police later discovered Bruce had lied and, in fact, his father did not die until six weeks later, on June 4, 2006.

He also made a separate claim that he was in hospital with his wife, who had just had a baby, when one of the alleged attacks took place. However, hospital records proved he was lying again.

Bruce denies five counts of indecent assault, two counts of attempted rape and two counts of rape, which are alleged to have taken place between 1988 and 1996.

The trial at Basildon Crown Court continues.