Pensioner Malcolm Vickery accused of catalogue of sexual abuse allegations dating back to 1970s

Malcolm Vickery, aged 72, formerly of Newport, but now from St Mary Street, Risca, is facing 31 counts against him at Cardiff Crown Court.

He denies all charges which prosecutor Caroline Rees QC said he committed between 1975 and 2011 against three female and one male complainants.

Vickery, who was known as 'Macca', is accused of 10 counts of rape, three of attempted rape, 12 of indecent assault, five of sexual assault and one of indecency with a child.

Miss Rees told the jury of eight men and four women: “This trial is about repeated and serious sexual abuse the prosecution say took place against four complainants many years ago, starting in 1975 when the defendant was a young man, a fitter man than the one who is now nearly 73-years-old.

“The defendant’s case is that the complainants have fabricated or lied when they say he did things to them.”

Miss Rees claims Vickery abused the first complainant when she was a little girl.

She said that during one alleged attack she “could smell the alcohol on his breath” and told how she was “frozen with fear”.

The second alleged victim was attacked, the prosecution claim, when he was a boy.

It was said that on one occasion he was beaten before he was sexually assaulted and how he “begged the defendant to stop”.

Miss Rees claimed that after Vickery raped the third complainant when she was a teenager, he told her: “‘Don’t tell anyone. If you do, I will kill you.’ She was, the prosecution say, extremely scared.”

The defendant is also accused of using his “Lassie-style dog” to carry out an “act of degradation” on her.

Miss Rees said of this alleged assault: “The more she was crying, the more he enjoyed it.”

The fourth complainant is a woman the prosecution say Vickery used for his own “sexual gratification”.

The defendant is represented by David Elias QC.

The trial before Judge Rhys Rowlands is expected to last two weeks.

Proceeding.