Veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall plied a young girl with alcohol and repeatedly raped her in his BBC dressing room in Manchester, a jury has heard.
Hall, 84, is said to have raped and indecently assaulted two young girls on various dates more than 35 years ago.
Last year, Mr Hall, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, was jailed for 14 offences of indecent assault against 13 girls. His sentence was later extended to 30 months, at the Court of Appeal.
Opening the prosecution case at Preston Crown Court, Peter Wright QC said Hall sexually abused his first victim between January 1, 1976 and September 30, 1978.
The jury heard about the first alleged rape of the first complainant, known only as girl A, in his dressing room at the BBC Studios in Manchester, sometime between January 1976 and April 1977.
Girl A, aged 14 at the time, was interested in a career in TV and films and regularly visited the BBC studios in Manchester city centre after school.
The girl had an invite as a guest to the studios where Hall, then aged 47, worked.
After filming Hall took the girl to his dressing room, gave her cigarettes and plied her with alcohol until she was ‘very intoxicated,’ Mr Wright said.
When aged 15, she regularly went to the BBC studios in Manchester city centre after school and it was arranged Hall would give her a lift home after he had finished his TV duties, the jury heard.
She would retire to his dressing room where he would ply her with drink, said the prosecutor.
“Once he had plied her with sufficient alcohol, such that she was disinhibited and heavily under the influence of drink, he had sex with her,” he said.
He also produced a massager which he used on her genitals. “She was as much his toy as the massager,” he said.
The pattern of behaviour continued for about 12 months, he said.
“It happened so frequently that she lost count of the number of times,” said Mr Wright.
Mr Wright said girl A estimated that Hall had intercourse with her on at least 30 occasions in such circumstances.
“This was not a mutually consenting act of intercourse between two people on an equal footing,” he said.
“This was a grown man exerting his influence and control over an impressionable and vulnerable young girl, intoxicated by his status and by drink.
“She was a young girl who had been reduced by this combination of factors into a compliant and submissive state in which he could satisfy his own sexual urges.”
Hall would give her money on occasions to treat herself, the jury heard.
The court also heard about the second alleged victim, known as girl B, who said she was raped and indecently assaulted by Stuart Hall between ages of 12 and 15.
The jury was told it coincided with his abuse of girl A.
The former It’s a Knockout presenter pleaded not guilty to all 20 allegations he currently faces.
Earlier, he pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault between 1978 and 1979 against a girl aged under-16.
The trial is expected to last seven days.
Image courtesy of BBC, via YouTube, with thanks.
