A FORMER church groundsman tricked young girls into having sex with him by claiming he had special powers that could only be "transferred" through intercourse, a court heard.

William Lambert lured "vulnerable, naive and troubled" girls into a church shed where he had sex with them as part of an "initiation ceremony" he claimed would bestow them with occult powers.

COURT CASE: William Lambert is alleged to have abused young girls in the 1980s at a Cheam church

The 74-year-old set up an unofficial youth club and let youngsters drink and smoke before "brainwashing" girls with stories of the Golden Dawn cult, a jury has been told.

In one case, it is alleged he told a teenage girl who feared she was pregnant that he was performing an abortion, before sexually assaulting her.

Four girls, aged between 11 and 15, were raped and sexually assaulted throughout the 1980s in an outbuilding at Cheam's St Dunstan's Church, where Lambert worked, Croydon Crown Court heard this week.

Prosecutor Gillian Etherton said: "These young, vulnerable, impressionable girls were looking for attention and they were spellbound by his extraordinary claims about a spiritual world."

Lambert would lay the girls on a table and tell them to take their clothes off, before hanging a red sheet above their waist so they could not see the assaults take place, the court heard.

He gave the girls sexual nicknames such as "jugs", and presented them with letters he claimed were written by a witch, which instructed them to sleep with him.

But Lambert, of Malden Road, Cheam, claims the charges are "malicious fabrications" and denies knowing two of the girls.

Throughout Wednesday's hearing Lambert, dressed in a blue suit, rubbed his head and muttered audible obscenities.

The allegations only came to light after one of the alleged victims, now a mother in her thirties, took her own daughter to counselling and found that her memories came flooding back.

The former pupil in Cheam told how Lambert offered her a refuge away from an alcoholic mother who beat her.

"He would tell us these bizarre things and we thought he must truly be a magician – he told us if you did what he wanted you could have these special powers," she said in a police video interview shown to the jury.

"Afterwards I felt like a horrible person and he just smirked."

Lambert denies four charges of rape and three of sexual assault relating to the four girls.

The trial, which began on Tuesday, continues.