Nottingham children's home social worker 'raped vulnerable girls'

Andris Logins has been charged with 17 sexual offences, including four counts of rape - he denies all of them

A social care worker took advantage of a "brutal regime" at a children's home to sexually abuse teenagers, a court has heard.

Andris Logins, 57, has been charged with 17 sexual offences alleged to have happened at Beechwood Community Home in Nottingham in the 1980s.

Nottingham Crown Court heard he targeted vulnerable children, who had no-one to complain to.

Mr Logins, of Stiles Road, in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, denies the charges.

Beechwood Community Home, in Mapperley, Nottingham, has now been demolished

Mr Logins, who is no longer a social worker, was aged 22 to 27 when he is alleged to have carried out the rapes and sexual assaults at the children's care home in Mapperley, which has since been demolished.

Youngsters were beaten, kicked and tormented and staff, as well as children, were terrified of a man who used to be in charge of the home, the jury was told.

Prosecutor Mary Prior QC said Mr Logins took advantage of that "brutal regime" and targeted vulnerable children

Prosecutor Mary Prior QC said Mr Logins took advantage of that regime and targeted vulnerable children, who were too afraid to complain because it was so "brutal".

Again and again, she accused him of committing serious child sex offences, but he replied that every allegation was not true.

Andris Logins said he never raped anybody, was not guilty of cruelty or indecent assaults

Mr Logins said records showed he was not on duty on the dates of some of the alleged offences.

He accepted there could have been abuse at the home, but was adamant it was not carried out by him.

Mr Logins said four alleged victims "had got the wrong man" and suggested the descriptions given could have fitted other men who worked at the home.

Ms Prior dismissed this and said two accusers used nicknames such as "Yogi Bear" and "the Honey Monster" to describe him.

Mr Logins accepted those names referred to him but insisted he never raped anybody and was not guilty of cruelty or indecent assaults.

The trial continues.

The charges in full:

• Two counts of rape on a girl under 14 between January and October 1984

• Two counts of rape of a girl under 16 between January and October 1984

• Four indecent assaults of a boy aged under 16 between October 1980 and May 1981

• Four indecent assaults on a girl under 16 between January and October 1984

• Four indecent assaults of a girl under 14 between January and October 1984

• One act of child cruelty between January and September 1984