Boaters on child sex charge

WHILST their boat was moored at Rugeley on the Trent & Mersey Canal a couple enticed two schoolchildren onto their narrowboat, offered them alcohol and persuaded them to play strip poker, Stafford Crown Court has heard.

Robert Orr, 41, and his partner Elisa Clifton, 25, of Draycott, deny two charges of inciting a child to engage in strip poker and two of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, under a blanket in front of the 13 years old girl and 14 years old boy.

Had sex behind curtain

A jury heard the couple went into a bedroom area which was only separated from the teenagers by a curtain and had sex. (The picture is a stock photograph of Rugeley moorings and does not depict the boat in question.)

Prosecutor Simon Rippon told the jury:

"Two young children, having been enticed on to the canal boat were provided with food, alcohol and cigarettes and the time came when they had been swimming in the river and these defendants proposed they play strip poker.

"As the game progressed, clothing was removed, as is the rules of strip poker. The defendants, losing items of clothing, had a towel wrapped around them."

Touched the girl

He told that the couple on a bed shielded only by a curtain had sex knowing two young children were on the boat, and that Orr then put his hand under the girl's clothing the next day making her feel very vulnerable.

The jury heard the schoolchildren broke off their contact with the couple but kept in touch using Facebook.

When questioned by police, Clifton claimed it was the boy's idea to play strip poker and also denied giving the children alcohol or cigarettes whilst Orr told police the children had come to see their narrowboat as ‘a youth club'.

The case continues.