A 48-year-old karate instructor had “countless” sex sessions with a Wyre Forest schoolgirl who attended his martial arts classes, a jury was told today.

The girl - who has died since the alleged offences - had a sexual relationship with Jaspal Riat when she was aged 13 and 14, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

She broke her silence about the affair when she feared she might be pregnant and confided in a nurse visiting her school in Wyre Forest to give sexual health and contraception advice, said prosecutor Alan Kent QC.

Riat, 48, of Denewood Avenue, Handsworth Wood, Birmingham, denies two charges of raping the girl, one charge of sexual assault and eight of sexual activity with a child.

The charges are dated between February, 2008 and May, 2009.

At the start of the trial Judge Jamie Tabor QC asked the jurors if they had any connection with Riat's karate organisation KAMA (the KoshinRyu Academy of Martial Arts).

Mr Kent told the jury: "This relationship developed at the defendant's instigation. He bombarded her with text messages and said he wanted to be her 'text boyfriend' with no intimacy or that sort of thing.

"But one night after a training session he led her up some stairs and kissed her with an open mouth. He then kept sending her texts and even offered her private karate tuition in his home.

"We say that he there plied her with alcohol and then raped her. Thereafter, there were countless occasions where sexual activity took place between them.

"The defendant says that absolutely no sexual activity ever took place between him and this girl. He says she was infatuated with him but when he had to stop her attending classes because of her health problems she was very upset and that caused her to make up these allegations against him."

Mr Kent said it was “undoubtedly a very unusual case” because the girl is no longer alive to give evidence.

"In March of this year she died," he said, "You will therefore not hear her being cross examined by the defence."

But, he said, they would see her video interviews with the police and they would be hearing from witnesses in whom she had confided that she was having sex with her karate instructor.

"During the course of the relationship she told a number of different people about it. She told friends about it when it was happening.

"And it seems to have been pretty much common knowledge with her mates at school that she was having sex with her karate instructor because that is what she told them."

The trial is expected to continue into next week.