A FORMER Dartmouth Yacht Club steward and restaurateur preyed on two separate families over more than a decade as he sexually molested their children – targeting girls from each family, a court has been told.

Phillip Walton – who was known as Aussie Phil to his victims' families – raped one of the girls in her Dartmouth home when she was just 10 or 11 years old, prosecuting QC David Sapiecha told a crown court jury.

On a separate occasion, he attempted to rape another girl when she was just eight years old, said Mr Sapiecha. He subjected both girls to a series of sexual assaults over the years, the court was told.

On one occasion, Walton carried out a sexual assault on the younger girl in his car while his own four-year-old son was in the back, Mr Sapiecha added.

The abuse finally came to an end when the older child – who was by now 11 or 12 – told their mother that she had seen Walton stealing her mother's underwear from a washing basket.

Mr Sapiecha claimed that Walton, who was then separated from his own wife, moved on to another family in Kingsbridge.

He said that when one victim was aged eight, Walton walked into her bedroom, got into her bed and began touching her.

On another occasion, said Mr Sapiecha, he touched her sexually and told her 'it's like being close, like father and daughter'.

Mr Sapiecha said that when the girl eventually told friends what had been happening, police interviewed her and another child who told officers that on two occasions, when she was around nine or 10, Walton had touched her sexually.

Walton, 55, faces a total of 13 charges of sexual assault including one of rape and two of attempted rape. He has pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges.

Charges of rape, an alternative charge of attempted rape and one of indecent assault relate to one of the alleged victims and charges of attempted rape and three of indecent assault relate to the second.

One charge of indecent assault and charges of sexual activity with a child involving sexual touching relate to the other two girls.

The girls, now aged between 14 and 27, are expected to give their evidence from behind a screen.

Walton, who runs the Hideaway Speakeasy nightclub in Mill Street, Kingsbridge, where he also lives, came to this country from Australia in 1984.

He appeared before Recorder J Fuller QC at Plymouth Crown Court for trial.

Mr Sapiecha said the mother of the Dartmouth family at first believed Walton was 'helpful and dependable', said Mr Sapiecha.

He said that the oldest girl remembered an occasion when she was eight or nine years when, she says, Walton indecently assaulted her while they sat on the sofa together watching television.

Mr Sapiecha said that on the surface Walton had been very helpful – 'a do-gooder'.

On another occasion, the eldest girl had fallen asleep on the sofa and woke up to find Walton in the act of raping her, said Mr Sapiecha.

She was scared and did not know what he was doing, he said.

After the elder girl revealed what had been happening to her, the younger girl was interviewed and she told police she was just six or seven when Walton sexually assaulted her.

She told how Walton had done the same thing while she was in his car and Walton's own young son was on the back seat.

On another occasion, he attempted to rape her when she was just eight years old, said Mr Sapiecha.

The jury was told that when police interviewed Walton in May 2010 he 'denied the allegations emphatically' and added 'his case is effectively that the allegations must have been made up'.

The trial opened at the crown court on Wednesday and is expected to last at least two weeks.

Walton is on conditional bail during the course of the trial. He is forbidden from being with a child under the age of 16 unless supervised and must not attempt to contact prosecution witnesses.