Second alleged victim gives evidence in Frank Maurice Cooper case (From Dorset Echo)

Second alleged victim gives evidence in Frank Maurice Cooper case

12:30pm Wednesday 27th February 2013 in News

THE second alleged victim of man accused of sexual activity with teenage girls has given evidence against him. Frank Maurice Cooper, aged 35, denies six counts of sexual activity with a child and is on trial at Dorchester Crown Court.

On day two of the trial, jurors watched a video interview with the second alleged victim.

The 14-year-old girl said Cooper touched her inappropriately on the night of September 8 last year. She said that she and a group of friends spent the day in the Borough Gardens and in the evening they took a tent to the play area off Maiden Castle Road where they built a bonfire with the intention of camping for the night.

The girl said Cooper, who was eight on a scale of one to 10 for drunkeness, joined them there.

She said he touched her twice while near to the bonfire and later when the two were alone. When asked by prosecutor Martin Lanchester how the touching had made her feel, she said: “I was worried and scared. I was upset.”

The girl said Cooper, of Millfield, Chard, Somerset, was arrested at the scene after the first victim and another girl called the police.

In cross-examination she denied a suggestion put to her by Tim Shorter that she had made up the allegations. She denied that a three litre bottle of cider in her bag belonged to her.

The trial continues.