Nightclub boss Phillip Walton walked into an eight-year-old girl's bedroom and began touching her sexually, one of his alleged victims has told a crown court jury.

Walton put his hand down her top and her pants as she lay in bed in her home pretending to be asleep, the girl, now an adult, told the jury.

The girl said that when she was older, 55-year-old Walton, a former Dartmouth Yacht Club steward, restaurateur and now boss of a Kingsbridge nightclub, had squeezed her breasts and bottom and made a joke of it.

And she told the jury that Walton wanted her to lie on top of him on the sofa as they watched television  almost up until the time she was 16 years old.

'This was normal Phil behaviour,' she told the jury under cross-examination. 'It was normality. I didn't dispute it, I thought it was normal.'

As she was questioned by Watson's barrister George Threlfall, she rejected suggestions she was remembering a 'false memory' or that she had made it up to 'get at' Walton.

She also rejected suggestions that the incident in the bedroom had not happened the way she remembered and that Walton had simply walked in and felt her forehead because she was supposed to be ill.

When asked why she did not scream or call out, she said: 'I didn't know how to react. I was a small child.

'I didn't know what was going on. I thought I was in trouble.'

The girl was the third of Watson's alleged victims to give evidence at the crown court trial in Plymouth as it went into its fifth day.

Walton has denied 13 charges including rape, attempted rape and indecent assault, involving four girls and two separate families living in the Dartmouth and Kingsbridge areas.

The four girls' ages now range between 14 and 27.

The two girls who have already been in the witness box gave evidence on the charges relating to the rape and the attempted rapes.

The third girl – who broke down in tears on several occasions as she came under cross- examination – rejected the false memory claim, saying: 'When something like that happens to you, you are not going to forget it.'

Two of her school friends both gave evidence about how on separate occasions when the alleged victim was in her teens she told them about the incident in the bedroom when she was just eight years old.

One of the friends said: 'She told me not to tell anyone because no one would believe her because it was such a long time ago.

'We never spoke of it again.'

The last alleged sex victim to give evidence at his  trial told the jury on Wednesday how Walton made her touch him as they lay on a sofa.

The girl, who is still a teenager, said that the incident happened when she was only nine or 10 years old in a house in the Kingsbridge area.

The girl gave her evidence via a video link before she was cross-examined by Walton's defence barrister George Threlfall.

The teenager, said that Walton had told her to lie on the sofa with him.

She said Walton was dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts and a shirt. She said he then took her hand and made her touch him.

'It was disgusting,' she told the court. 'I didn't really know how to react to it. It kind of made me sick. I felt sick and disgusted.'

She said she was subjected to a similar incident a short while afterwards but on that occasion she said she 'realised what he was doing'.

And she said: 'I made sure it never happened again.'

When asked why she had not told anyone about the two incidents until years afterwards, she said: 'I was embarrassed. I didn't want to bring it up.'

As she was cross- examined, she rejected suggestions she had made the whole thing up and other people had suggested the incidents had taken place.

'No. It hasn't been put into my mind,' she said.

Mr Threlfall said: 'I am suggesting that this has been suggested to you.'

The girl said: 'I'm not making it up.'

Mr Threlfall said: 'I'm going to suggest that this did not happen.'

She replied: 'No. No one told me that. That's how I remember it.'

Mr Threlfall: 'I suggest that these two incidents never happened.'

The girl replied: 'They did happen.'

The trial continues and Walton remains on conditional bail.

The charges...

Phillip Walton, who runs the Hideaway Speakeasy in Mill Street, Kingsbridge, where he also lives, faces a total of 13 charges – all of which he has denied.

Charges relating to girl A are: Indecent assault; rape and an alternative charge of attempted rape.

Charges relating to girl B are: Three charges of indecent assault and one of attempted rape

Charges relating to girl C are: Indecent assault and three charges of sexual activity with a child.

Charges relating to girl D are: Two charges of sexual touching of a child.