A MAN has gone on trial for alleged historic underage sex offences dating back to the 1980s.
Keith Bloomfield, 64, allegedly started a sexual relationship with the then 14-year-old after he took her to a pub beer garden one day after picking her up in his car and asked to kiss her, Bournemouth Crown Court heard. The complainant is now 50.
Bloomfield is accused of multiple sexual offences involving an underage girl in West Dorset between September 26, 1985 and May 11, 1987, which he denies.
On the first day of the trial on Monday Gordon Ross, prosecuting, said the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now 50 years old and that the six indictments Bloomfield is charged with happened when she was around 14-and-a-half or 15 years of age.
Mr Ross said: "It is difficult for her to be precise about when these events happened". But he said that she is in 'no doubt' that they did happen.
He said that in a police interview the complainant said that Bloomfield was involved with a youth club in West Dorset which the complainant was a member of.
A recorded interview given to the police on October 5, 2017 was shown to the court on the second day of the trial yesterday. In the recording the alleged victim said her relationship with Bloomfield started to become sexual after he took her to a pub beer garden and asked to kiss her. The complainant said that she did not say anything but that he kissed her anyway.
She claimed Bloomfield, of Normandy Way, Bridport, then started to take her back to his house where he would perform sexual acts. She said his actions were 'ritualistic' and that he would find her around the town or go to her house, pick her up in his 'flashy' sports car and say, 'let's go for a cup of tea'.
She said his actions were 'ritualistic' and seemed to be part of his 'arousal process'.
She said: "I don't know why I didn't say no - I just went along with it.
"I was nervous and apprehensive around him only because I knew what was coming.
"It was always the same. I knew when I was being picked up by him in his car what he was going to do.
"It was a relationship where he just took advantage of me."
The alleged victim said Bloomfield moved house with his girlfriend at the time where he continued the abuse and started to show her hardcore pornography, by which time the complainant was thought to be aged over 16.
She said he would perform the sexual acts whilst his girlfriend was away at work and that his partner had no idea about what he was doing.
The court heard that she moved county but that he visited her new address and that she was 'so taken aback' that she asked a boy she was friends with to pretend to be her boyfriend and stay the night whilst Bloomfield was around for protection.
She said this was the last time she saw Bloomfield.
The alleged victim reported the sex offences against Bloomfield in 2017 . When asked why she reported the alleged abuse over thirty years later she said she was doing a safeguarding course for work and found herself getting emotional.
She said: "It just sparked something in me emotionally.
"I just want closure."
The trial continues.
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