Accused of trapping girls in house

A married couple are accused of locking two girls aged 10 in their home and making sexual remarks to them.

John, 59, and Elizabeth Bell, 58, also deny causing one of them to consider jumping out of a window to escape.

They also pled not guilty to inducing them to enter their home in Drumley Drive Mossblown, refusing to let them leave, and inviting them to smoke cigarettes.

The pair appeared in Ayr Sheriff Court this week in the dock side by side.

The girls had been out playing and decided to go to the couple’s house but were not allowed to leave, the court heard.

One of the girls told the court by video link that her friend said she felt like jumping out of the window during the two hours they were trapped. The child said: “She was scared.” She told the court Bell the husband took blue pills and asked the girls did they know what sex was.

Lawyer Quinton Muir asked why the girl giving evidence didn’t tell her mum immediately after the episode.

She replied: “I didn’t want to get my mum upset.”

Mr Muir accused her of making it all up against the people who took them in a for a short period. The young girl replied: “It did all happen.”

Defence lawyer Glenn Davis told her: “If you make things up you can get caught out making things up.”

The girls told a support teacher at their school following the alleged May 29, 2015 incident, the court heard. The trial continues.