A 51-year-old Eltham man is on trial accused of child sexual offences with a girl more than 30 years his junior.

Fred Finch, of Well Hall Road, is accused five sexual offences against a then 15-year-old from Sidcup, including possessing indecent images.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been under the care of her local authority for years after her father committed suicide.

Prosecuting at Woolwich Crown Court, Richard Bendall told the jury yesterday (November 9) the girl, now 16, came to see Finch as a father figure.

Mr Bendall said: “By about September 2014, when she was still 15, [the girl] began to have romantic feelings for the defendant.”

The court was told after she had been drinking at a party last December and kissed him.

Mr Bendall added: “To his credit according to her he appears to have discouraged her because of the age difference and kept his distance.

“But by February 2015 they were talking again and that led to sexual physical contact.”

Suspicions were aroused their relationship was inappropriate when someone spotted them kissing, but Finch said he was “consoling” her.

Messages were seen between the two, with Finch referred to as ‘Freddy’ and the use of kissing emojis.

Mr Bendall told the court: “These didn’t seem entirely appropriate for [the girl] to be sending to the defendant or for him to be sending to a 15-year-old girl.

“The relationship between [the girl] and the defendant seemed over-familiar with one another.”

A concerned party got hold of the alleged victim’s phone and saw new £110 boots, a cinema ticket captioned “cinema with the main one”, along with selfies of the pair.

MORE TOP STORIES When confronted, Mr Bendall said: “[The girl] then confessed she had been sleeping with the defendant, initially saying it was around her 16th birthday but as they talked she said it was when she was 15.

“[She] blamed herself for it saying she had instigated it.”

The next morning the alleged victim had run away with Finch.

Having been missing for 10 days, the pair handed themselves in to Plumstead police station on May 26, and Finch was arrested.

Bendall said: “In summary he said he had been an idiot but that [the girl] said she was going to be put into care so he thought he would keep her safe.

“He said it was a foolish decision I’ve made as an adult and I take that on the chin.”

The pair originally claimed they had no sexual relations, and [the girl] said Finch had no knowledge of the images on his phone of her.

But she was secretly taped when she initially admitted something happened between them. Having discovered that, the girl made a video statement claiming she had sex with him just once.

Mr Bendall read: “[The girl] said they had sexual intercourse once when she was 15, in a future film statement she admitted that in fact they carried on having sex after that when she was 16, including when they ran off together.”

The court was played the first taped statement from the girl.

In it she says: “Fred was like a father to me.

“He was basically looking after me as a dad when I was staying round there, getting too close with him I started liking him and fancying him.”

She continued on tape: “I told him I liked him. I was young, I didn’t really know much.

“I started touching him, he started touching me.”

She said they started having sex in his bedroom.

The girl added: “It wasn’t really that long because I didn’t like it so I told him to get off me.

“He got off me. We just acted normal.”

When asked on tape whose idea it was she twice replies “mine”.

Finch denies all charges. The trial continues.