A children's entertainer raped a young girl and indecently assaulted two more, a court heard.

David Payne, 56, who advertises his party magic shows in the Swindon Yellow Pages, denies the charges.

The alleged rape victim was aged nine and the other girls eight and ten at the time. None can be named for legal reasons.

Clutching a teddy bear, one of the girls sobbed as she told Swindon Crown Court she had begged Payne to stop touching her.

The father-of-two is accused of carrying out the offences between September 13 1995 and May 2000.

Prosecutor Susan Jacklin told the court that Payne, who lives in Burton near Chippenham, was often around children.

She said: "The defendant was a house husband and his wife worked full-time.

"He took on the role of looking after the children and in his spare time had some employment as a magician at children's parties."

Ms Jacklin said the first offence, an indecent assault on the eight-year-old who is now 10, took place last year while Payne was giving her a lift home from a party.

Giving evidence via a video-link, the child said: "I said don't do it. I told him not to. He didn't say anything."

Her father told the court: "She said that on the journey home he had assaulted her. I didn't want it to be true not to anybody, let alone to her.

"She didn't want the police to be called, but she knew they had to be. Once she told me, she knew what had happened was wrong."

He added that until about three months ago, his daughter had refused to sleep anywhere but at home.

Another indecent assault is alleged to have happened on a 10-year-old.

Payne was arrested for the rape after his other alleged victim, aged nine, told her mother what had happened to her. The court heard she had been indecently assaulted by Payne from the age of six.

Ms Jacklin said: "He accepted much of what had been alleged, but he does not accept that he ever raped her."

After the police video was played to the court, Payne's counsel Peter Fortune suggested to the girl that no assault happened, that she tended to exaggerate and had been upset by other matters at the time.

But the girl repeated her claim.

The trial continues