London: British former broadcaster Stuart Hall repeatedly plied two young teenage girls with drink and raped them in his BBC dressing room, a court heard today.
Hall made them his personal playthings, "wholly submissive to his sexual demands", state prosecutors claimed as they opened their case against the 84-year-old broadcasting veteran.
He poured champagne on the naked body of one alleged victim and took a cutting of her pubic hair as a trophy, Preston Crown Court in northwest England heard.
Hall is charged with 15 rapes and five indecent assaults against two complainants known only as Girl A and Girl B, who were under the age of consent (16) when the alleged abuse began in the late 1970s.
The presenter`s lawyer said given their ages, the jury had to consider whether, legally, what happened was unlawful sex "somewhere between rape and consent" and whether a complaint from could still be brought after a more than a year.
Hall presented the hit BBC television show "It`s a Knockout" in the 1970s and 1980s, fronted the BBC regional news in northwest England and was a football commentator.
He is serving a 30-month prison sentence after admitting indecently assaulting 13 young girls or women.
In the current cases, "he exploited the position of influence he had over each of them for his own sexual gratification," prosecutor Peter Wright told Preston Crown Court in northwest England.
Speaking of the first alleged rape, Girl A told the court that when aged 14 or 15, Hall had given her a tour of the BBC studios in Manchester, plied her with rum and cola until she was "paralytic", then "one thing led to another".
"I remember him being on top of me, I remember his tongue being everywhere. I just went along with it."
Afterwards, Hall told her it was "our secret", jurors heard.
She said she now wanted "revenge... For what he did".
In cross-examination, she said Hall was charming and "good company".
Hall`s lawyer Crispin Aylett asked her: "He didn`t rape you, did he?"
She said: "Not as such. I would not say he attacked me."
Asked if she enjoyed sex with Hall, she answered: "In a drunken haze, probably."
She said she was "a naive little girl... You think you are super-mature and know it all, when you are not."
Asked if her mother was encouraging her to have intercourse with Hall, she told the court: "It could be."
