A CHILDREN'S home principal had sex with a girl in his care when they played hide-and-seek in bluebell woods on the Lickey Hills, a court heard.

Children from The Uplands in Blackwell, near Bromsgrove, were taken on outings to the beauty spot and Brian Gillam would hide in the ferns to wait for her, the victim told the jury.

The girl, now 41, claimed he would also tiptoe into the dormitory in the early hours after he had been drinking and take her for sex in his car.

She alleged he twice made her pregnant and arranged abortions during a sexual relationship which began after she was put in care because she was beyond parental control.

Gillam, aged 62, of Churchfields, Sidemoor, Bromsgrove, denies five counts of rape, seven of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child under the age of 14. The offences are alleged to have happened between 1974 and 1983.

Prosecutor Rachel Brand QC alleged at Worcester Crown Court that Gillam manipulated the girls for his own sexual gratification.

The witness told the court she first had intercourse with Gillam during a camping trip when she was 13 or 14.

Manipulative

She alleged they had sex regularly when they could find a place quiet and convenient - in his car, caravan, bungalow or office.

She denied a suggestion by James Burbidge QC, defending, she was manipulative and had fabricated her evidence. She admitted a long list of criminal convictions, but denied she was persistently dishonest.

Another witness, a 40-year-old woman told how she was sent to The Uplands in 1976 after playing truant from her Birmingham school.

She recalled an incident in Bromsgrove baths at 13 or 14 when youngsters from the home were taken for a swimming lesson. Gillam came up behind her in the water and grabbed her around the stomach. He pushed himself against her and became sexually aroused, she claimed.

Mr Burbidge suggested Gillam never went swimming because he needed thick glasses to see.

The woman, who gave her evidence from behind a screen, observed: "Yes he did. He looked thin and scrawny, like a little old man."

She also described how Gillam got her and two other girls to rub baby oil on his body in a dormitory. In return, he took her on trips in his car to her mother's home in Erdington.

The trial continues.