MAGICIAN David Payne indecently assaulted a ten-year-old girl while reading her a story in bed, a court heard.

The child, now 11, said she was visiting David Payne's home when he invited her into his bed and touched her improperly.

Payne, 56, on trial at Swindon Crown Court, denies indecently assaulting the girl, raping another and indecently assaulting a third.

Payne, a children's entertainer and househusband, lives in Burton, near Chippenham. He advertises in Swindon's Yellow Pages and works in the area.

A police video statement given by the girl he is accused of assaulting in his bed in May of this year was played to the jury.

The girl said: "He had his hand round me, over my shoulder.

"I think he was lying on his back."

The girl said Payne was in bed because of back pain, and that he invited her to join him while he read two stories to her.

Earlier, she had gone to his room to ask a question about a section of the Bible.

She claimed the attack only ceased when Payne's wife came upstairs and said it was time for her to go home.

The girl described what she believed Payne was wearing and the staircase of the house.

Payne's counsel Peter Fortune suggested no attack had taken place.

She replied: "It's what happened."

Earlier, the court heard that Payne was arrested for the alleged rape after another girl, aged nine, told her mother he had attacked her.

The court also heard she had been indecently assaulted by Payne from the age of six.

Mr Fortune told her Payne accepted indecently assaulting her four times, but refused to accept that rape had ever taken place.

He suggested to the girl that she had made up the rape allegation in order to punish Payne for the other things he had done to her.

But the girl insisted she was telling the truth.

Payne describes himself as a member of the Bath Magic Circle and advertises himself in the Yellow Pages and on the internet.

The case before Judge John McNaught continues.