An amateur stand-up comedian sexually abused a child by playing a card game, a court heard.

Gavin Durling allegedly subjected the youngster to five years of sex attacks when he himself was a child.

The 29-year-old (pictured left) is said to have abused the younger child from the age of 11, when the alleged victim was just five.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Durling would play a card game with the child - with every card picked leading to a sex act.

Durling, formerly of Queen Elizabeth Square, Maidstone, denies four charges of rape, 10 of indecency with a child and five of indecent assault.

Michael Riley, prosecuting, claimed the abuse continued until Durling was 16.

He told the jury of eight women and four men that former Maidstone Comedy Club performer Durling told the boy it was their secret.

"Every card that was picked meant a sex act," he said. "The activity would be one after another. The alarm would go and it would be time for another card."

It would always end with a sex act in the bathroom, Mr Riley alleged.

"He said if anybody else knew it would spoil it - that is important," he said.
The prosecutor said the sex acts fell into four categories, one of which was rape.

Gavin Durling is on trial at Maidstone Crown Court

There were 19 charges, but each one was an example of "many, many instances of each one of these pieces of sexual activity".

The alleged victim, now in his early 20s, went to the police in May 2010.

He said: "It makes me feel sick and disgusted but back then it made me feel close to him."

The trial continues.

Gavin Durling's young age when the abuse allegedly started would at one time mean he was considered to "lack the capacity" to commit such offences.

But Michael Riley, prosecuting, said the law changed in September 1998 and a young person could be then be prosecuted if it was believed he knew what he was doing at the time was seriously wrong.

"Where we have a case that goes back to this time period, the Crown has to satisfy you so you are sure that the defendant knew he was not just being naughty or stupid, but it was as a result wrong in all the circumstances."

Mr Riley said the principle applied to the first nine of the 19 charges on the indictment.

"The Crown say he knew precisely what he was doing," he continued. "The indictment goes up to when he was 16 in June 1998.

"The defendant knew what he was doing."