TWO little girls "thrown on to the streets" after their family split up were allegedly abused by a teenager who had sex with one of them, a jury was told.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Peter Marren was said to have sat next to one of the alleged victims, from the Burnley area and now in their 20s, put a duffel coat over their laps and fondled her.

He also groped the other girl, who rushed in tears to tell an adult what had happened. She told the court she believed she had had difficulty with men throughout her life because of a violent father and because of what the defendant had allegedly done to her.

Marren, now 38, formerly of Airdrie Crescent and Girvan Grove, Burnley, and recently living in Scunthorpe, denies two charges of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, two alternative counts of indecent assault and three further counts of indecent assault, alleged to have been committed between May 1976 and March 1979, when the complainants were of primary school age. He was found not guilty of two charges of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 by the jury, on the direction of Judge David Pirie.

Simon Burrows, prosecuting, said the two girls had been thrown on to the streets and the defendant had sexual intercourse with one of the schoolgirls twice, when she was about eight-years-old.

Edward Bindoss, defending Marren, said the defendant would not give evidence, but he was entitled not to go into the witness box and not to have it held against him.

He told police he could not remember much about the late 1970s and he wouldn't do the things alleged against him.

The girl who claimed Marren had sex with her had told how he never said anything to her, there were no threats, offers of sweets, money or promises. There was no other evidence to support the other girl's claim she had been indecently assaulted once, as nobody else saw it.

(Proceeding)

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