A MOTHER challenged a man over his alleged sexual abuse of her daughter, telling a jury he ‘didn't deny it’.

The mother of the alleged victim appeared as witness in the trial of Philip Oliver at Worcester Crown Court yesterday. She said she once found Oliver on top of her daughter, rocking back and forth during alleged abuse in Dines Green, Worcester, during the 1970s.

The 70-year-old former milkman of Wilson Road, Shurdington, near Cheltenham, denies 12 child sexual offences between 1971 and 1980, beginning when the girl was four or five years old - six indecent assaults, four counts of indecency, one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 and one count of attempting to have sexual intercourse with a girl aged under 16.

The witness said her daughter was an adult when she told her about him ‘kissing and fondling’ her and rubbing himself against her. “I told him all of it. He didn’t deny it” she said.

Adam Western, defending, put it to her that his client had denied it when the conversation took place but she maintained he had not.

He asked her if she had been asked to make a statement when her daughter reported the allegations to police in 1993 and she answered ‘no’. When asked if she was interviewed she said a police officer came to talk to her but she could not remember if they discussed the allegations made by her daughter.

She was aware that police had made a decision to take no further action against Oliver in 1993. She also said she had been to see a solicitor, telling them her daughter had been sexually abused but said she did not tell them 'all of it', adding: "I was quite ashamed."

The witness also said her daughter only told her a small part of what had happened to her.

Asked by Mr Western why she did not go to the police instead she responded that she wanted the matter 'settled', she was 'fraught' and didn't know where to go'.

We have previously reported how the jury has been played a video-recorded interview with the complainant.

She broke down as she gave live evidence behind a screen.

The trial continues.