A MOTHER-of-two sobbed as she told a court how a pensioner sexually abused her - and that all she wanted was for him to say sorry.

The woman, one of two alleged victims of Walter Pearson, 67, said the assaults took place when she was a schoolgirl, but she did not make a statement to police until last March.

Another woman, now in her 20s, told a Burnley Crown Court jury Pearson would touch her.

Pearson, of St Michael's Close, Feniscowles, denies five allegations of indecent assault between 1981 and 1988. The mother-of-two, who admitted she had made a late-night phone call to Pearson branding him a pervert, said Pearson had admitted sexually assaulting her but had asked her "Why bring it all up now?"

She claimed Pearson had tried to stare her out if she had seen him in town.

The woman shouted at Pearson, who is hard of hearing and has been allowed to sit out of the dock: "Why couldn't you just say you did it and you were sorry it happened?

"It's gone this far because you wouldn't even admit what you have done." Cross-examined by Philip Curran, defending, the woman denied making nuisance calls to Pearson "laughing down the phone."

She claimed she had not wanted to complain to police in 1995, when the other woman had made her allegations, because she had been about to get married and was having fertility treatment.

She said she finally made her statement because she wanted Pearson to know he "couldn't get away with it."

The alleged victim said she had gone to see her doctor, but had told him she was under stress.

She had turned down anti-depressants and time off work, and after contacting police had gone back to her doctor.

Pearson's second alleged victim said she had gone for counselling.

She told the jury she had once confronted Pearson in Blackburn town centre, calling him a pervert to his face.

She added: "He just looked up and looked the other way."

(Proceeding)

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