Victims of a man who is alleged to have systematically abused children in King’s Lynn over the course of almost 15 years found the courage to speak out after making contact again on a social networking site, a court has heard.

Gary Auker, of Kent Close, Sutton Bridge, has denied a charge of attempted rape, indecency with a child and 16 counts of indecent assault.

At the opening of his trial at Norwich Crown Court yesterday a jury was told that he had sexually assaulted two boys and three girls between the ages of four and 14, over almost a 15 year period in North Lynn.

Prosecution Andrew Thompson told the court that Auker had carried out the assaults between 1975 and 1990 from the age of 16, until he was around 30 years old.

“The complainants were all children at the time”, said Mr Thompson, opening the case for the prosecution.

Mr Thompson told the jury that one victim had been “damaged irrevocably by the abuse he suffered at the hands of Gary Auker.”

He said that the police had been told after two of the victims had made contact again last year.

“After several weeks of contact on Facebook he indicated in a message left on Facebook that he had been sexually abused by Gary Auker.”

He said that the other victim had not replied for a bit and then told him that she too had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Gary Auker.

“It let then to make contact with others”, he said.

He said they had met in August 2010, but did not discuss the details and allegations they were each making.

They reported the abuse to the police.

Giving evidence the first victim said the abuse had started when he was five or six years old.

He said that he had spoken about the abuse but had been told he was a liar and had been “given a hiding”.

“I did not know the difference between right and wrong”, he said.

“He would say ‘it’s alright to do this’. I thought I had no choice, I was a little boy and he was a big man.”

The attempted rape is alleged to have taken place between 1981 and 1983 a girl who believes she was seven or eight at the time.

The trial continues.