A FATHER who stands accused of grooming and raping a teenager 10 years ago has told a court that the allegations against him are ‘fantasy’.

Samuel Redhead, 34, denies 13 charges of historic sexual abuse involving a Winsford woman who was aged between 13 and 16 years old at the time.

He told Chester’s Nightingale court in the town hall on Thursday that he had moved to Bradbury Road, in Wharton, in 2009 with partner Rona Crawford and her daughter – before the couple had a child later that year.

Redhead said that the couple got to know the complainant’s family well and would visit their home ‘every two weeks’.

Asked what his relationship with the complainant was, he said: “It was non-existent really. It was my girlfriend at the time who knew her more than I did.”

The teenager soon started coming round to Redhead’s home more frequently, and he told the court that she ‘became good friends’ with his partner and that she was ‘very good at interacting’ with their young children – who she would look after on occasions.

However, Redhead insisted that he did not spend any significant periods of time with the teenager, and that she would instead spend more of her time with Ms Crawford.

Asked if there was ever a time where the two of them would have been alone together, he said: “Not from what I can remember.”

The court heard that the teenager began to stay at Redhead’s home more frequently, and although he felt the teenager would have described him as a friend, he was not happy about her regular visits.

“I was friendly towards her but I did not want her to be there,” he said.

Redhead told the court that he never found the teenager attractive and described her as an ‘airhead’.

He said: “She was not very bright. She just comes out with stupid stuff – that is the impression she gave.”

Redhead denied each allegation that was put to him – insisting that he never kissed the teenager, touched her or had sex with her.

He also denied the circumstances which the complainant had described ever took place – such as picking her up from a party in Northwich on the first night they allegedly kissed, taking her out in the car, or helping tidy up at a friend’s house party where she claimed he begun to have sex with her.

Redhead denied that there had been an occasion where the complainant had been at his home at the same time as Kenneth Dyson, 30, of Dingle Lane, Winsford, and David Sydenham, 34, of Redbrook Grove, Wilmslow.

All three men deny the allegation that they had tried to engage in sexual acts with her without consent.

Asked how the allegation of penetrating the teenager with a wine bottle made him feel, Redhead said: “Quite upset.”

Redhead also denied ever waking the teenager up, and told the court that she would sleep on a bunk bed rather than the sofa, where the complainant alleged she was touched by him.

However, Redhead had previously said the teenager would sleep on the sofa in an earlier statement.

Asked by prosecutor Nicholas Williams why he had changed his answer, Redhead said: “I don’t know.

“I can’t remember her ever sleeping on the sofa.”

Mr Williams also challenged Redhead on why he answered ‘no comment’ to every question put to him by police when first interviewed in September 2018.

Redhead said: “Because I was in shock – I could not believe it was happening.”

Redhead, now of Cavendish Terrace, Ripon, denies four counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, three counts of assault by penetration and three counts of causing the girl to engage in sexual acts without her consent.

The trial continues.