TWO men allegedly sexually abused a Burnley schoolgirl, with one of them grooming her, getting her hooked on drugs and repeatedly raping and indecently assaulting her, a jury was told.

The town's crown court heard allegations the child was shown pornography and told to do what was depicted.

She was encouraged to touch and kiss women from a mental health unit, made to pose for photographs and was instructed to steal by ‘controlling’ John Pye.

He is said to have polished a gun and then fired it in front of her, while naked.

On one occasion, when the alleged victim wanted revenge after he had sexually assaulted her, she urinated into his beer and Pye was so angry he allegedly slammed a kitten against a wall and killed it.

Pye then put on The Happiest Days of Our Lives by Pink Floyd and allegedly raped the girl.

He is also alleged to have ordered the girl to ‘throw herself’ at his friend Paul Harrold, when she was aged between eight and 11.

Harrold is alleged to have raped her. Pye was then angry and raped her as well, the court heard.

The defendants are alleged to have struck decades ago after the girl met Pye when she was playing out. Pye is also accused of raping a woman in her twenties, who he is said to have supplied with dihydrocodiene. She too ended up a drug addict.

The hearing has been told how the first alleged victim had not felt able to confide in anyone until 2005, when she struck up a friendship with a church member who turned up at her house to talk about religion. She made a complaint to the police in February 2012.

Prosecutor Alison Mather told the jury: “She explains that her motivation for finally coming forward was the belief that Mr Pye was continuing his destructive behaviour as he had told her that he had a new little friend.”

Pye, 56, of Saxon Street, Burnley, denies three counts of rape, five charges of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child, said to have taken place between June 1976 and June 1982, against the girl, and raping the woman in 1993.

Harrold, now 54, of Craven Street, Barnoldswick, pleads not guilty to one rape charge, said to have taken place between June 1976 and June 1980.

Miss Mather told the jury the first alleged victim, now in her forties, endured ‘years of abuse at the hands of John Pye and his associates’.

The prosecutor continued: “She reports over the following years into her teenage years he introduced her to drugs and alcohol and physically and sexually abused her.”

Miss Mather alleged Pye showed the alleged victim pornography.

She said: “He would have magazines that he would show her and ask what she thought of them.

“And, it’s at this stage, the prosecution say, the sexual abuse began.”

Miss Mather said Pye was arrested and interviewed in March 2012. He denied the alleged offences and said as far as he was concerned the first alleged victim was a lesbian.

The defendant claimed he had a consensual sexual relationship with the woman.

Harrold was arrested and interviewed in April 2012.

He denied he had had any sexual contact with the alleged victim.

(Proceeding)