A MAN attacked and raped a girl, a court heard.

David Hooper, 80, of Gallion Road, Chafford Hundred, is on trial at Basildon Crown Court after being charged with rape of a child.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the parents of the child told the court about when their daughter told them what happened her to.

Speaking to the court the father said: “She told me one evening when we were talking about a book and television show.

“My daughter was being very quiet and then she wanted to speak to me alone.

“She said he wanted to show her pictures and then he asked her to undress before kissing her and getting on top of her.

“She said she felt as if could not breathe.

“I asked her a couple of times over a few weeks about what happened.

“We had been talking about nightmares, but she kept saying it was real life and kept saying she was not lying to me.

“When she was telling me my heart was beating so fast.

“I was in shock.

“I also spoke to her about it with my wife and she was just as shocked.”

He also told the court and jury that his daughter told him nobody else knew about the incident and threatened to kill her parents if they found out.

He added: “It was in about October 2019 that she told me something had happened to her.

“She initially told me the man had asked to show her images and I spoke to my wife and then we asked more and she told us more about it.

“As we were talking about nightmares with a book and show I wanted to ensure it wasn’t that but she kept saying it was real life and she was telling me the truth.”

The mother also spoke in court and told the hearing that she had no doubts about her child’s claims.

She said her child was shy afterwards and didn’t want to speak to people when out and would hide behind her too.

She said: “I was in shock, we’ve never had anything like this happen before in our family and or to our children.

“We had been talking lots about demons because of school work and a television show but I told the children we didn’t have any in our family.”

The trial continues