A VILLAGE shop employee accused of sexually abusing three children at the store made a youngster keep lookout for him, a court heard.
Christopher White, 37, is alleged to have exchanged cigarettes, alcohol and sweets for “sexual favours” while he worked at Layer Village Store in Layer de la Haye.
A trial exploring the alleged offences, said to have taken place between 2007 and 2009, continued yesterday.
During cross-examination one of the complainants said she was taken to a quiet space behind the shop, now under new ownership, by White and sexually abused.
“It was in the back of the shop,” she said. “There was a storeroom and then outside there was a walkway and that is where we were taken.”
She told the jury at Chelmsford Crown Court how another youngster was made to act as a lookout in case any customers came to the shop.
Read more from the trial: Former village shop worker gave children cigarettes for 'sexual favours', court hears
She claimed the watchperson would then dash to the back of the site and shake a fence to alert White of imminent danger.
The court heard the shop’s owner had banned groups of more than two schoolchildren from entering at a time.
Dingle Clark, defending, asked the complainant: “Do you recall if Christopher White imposed that rule?”
She responded: “I’m not sure. I recall [the shop owner] saying that no more than two children were allowed in the shop.
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“[White had] time limits for when the activity took place to ensure [the shop owner] wasn’t there and that we weren’t breaking the rules.”
Mr Clark added: “On numerous occasions you took part in sexual activity in order to gain either sweets or alcohol, is that right?”
The complainant said: “And cigarettes.”
The barrister revealed in 2017 the complainant then in her twenties, messaged White asking to meet at a “dogging” site in Braintree.
He said it was “strange” for her to do having allegedly been sexually abused by White.
She responded: “It is strange but I wasn’t aware I was a victim until I told the police [in 2019]. Until that point I had blamed myself for what I had done.”
White, of Mill Lane, Birch, denies three offences of sexual activity with a child, two offences of sexual assault of a child and two offences of rape of a child.
- The trial continues.
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