Bizarre Man Molests/Rapes Little Girl Then Writes A Book About It

The alleged victim was first touched at the age of four, the court heard

An antique dealer repeatedly raped a young girl in the 1980s and then used the abuse as inspiration for a novel, a court heard.

Xavier Driffield, 65, started touching the girl when she was only four whenever he was left alone with her, a jury heard.

Driffield's obsession increased as the girl grew older and he began raping her between 1989 and 1992 when she was between the ages of 11 and 13, a court was told.

When the alleged victim was about 17, Driffield sent the alleged victim's family a manuscript of a book he had written.

In the novel, which was never published, Driffield used the victim's name as a title for one of the chapters.

He sub-titled the chapter 'I have no objection to sex with children if only I could find a child attractive enough.'

Driffield handed a copy of the book to the police following his arrest, and in the chapter allegedly written about his victim the narrator talks about watching the character's breasts grow larger and larger and a desire to take a picture.

Elizabeth Smaller, prosecuting, said: "He took the time to speak to her about her family, he would say, in her words, horrible things.

Old Bailey

"In fact, you might think that was entirely part of his plan, because his intention was to drive a wedge between her and her family by saying her family did not love her or value her so she would feel isolated. "

It was so she would not know who to approach if she felt something was wrong."

She added: "He told her he wanted to see her chest develop.

"Although there was no touching at that point, the remark 'I would like to see your breasts grow' is significant because it features in a book the defendant wrote about a girl with the same name."

Driffield would tell the girl 'You're driving me to it' and told her that she liked it even when she was pleading with him to stop, Kingston Crown Court heard.

He would strangle her or almost-suffocate her while he was abusing her, it is alleged, leaving her gasping for breath.

She described the pain of being raped as 'like being ripped in half'.

Fears: The woman didn't report the alleged rapes because she thought no one would believe her.
 
Ms Smaller said: "He would also say there's no point telling anyone what was happening, and if she did no one would believe her and it was his word against hers.

"If she told her parents her father would probably kill him and her father would go to prison - perhaps unsurprisingly, you might think, the victim did not tell anyone."

In the early 1990s, a family friend found a notebook in which the terrified child had scribbled a few words about her alleged ordeal, writing 'he's coming to get me' and about how she would try and hide from him.

When her parents asked her about the notebook, she was too frightened to admit what was happening to her, and said she had just been writing a story.

Driffield stopped abusing the girl shortly before her 14th birthday when he moved away from the area.

The alleged victim did not mention the abuse until Driffield himself allegedly told her elder sister a few years later.

Ms Smaller said: "The subject of child sex offenders came up, he said he thought child sex offenders were given a hard time, there was nothing inherently wrong with it and that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing."

He then told the girl that he had touched her little sister when she was younger, it is said.

The alleged victim, who is now 36, did not go to the police until February last year, saying it was only after having a child herself she realised she needed to do something.

Driffield, from West Kensington, denies five charges of indecent assault, one of indecency with a child and two of rape.

The trial continues.