A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl was sexually abused after being dragged into a man's house, a court heard.

Steven Strong groped the youngster and put his hand down her trousers after beckoning her into his home.

She fled when he went to look for his dog and reported the incident to an adult nearby.

Strong, aged 42, of Longcauseway, Farnworth, beckoned the girl to his back door before pulling her to the stairs where he kissed her and put his hands up her top and down her pants. Strong denies taking a child without lawful authority and sexually assaulting a child.

Nicola Gatto, prosecuting, told how the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was playing on her bicycle near the rear of a house which had been divided into four flats. Strong lived in one of the flats.

Miss Gatto stated that Strong, who had a Staffordshire Bull Terrier dog, encouraged the child to come to him as he stood at the back door by beckoning her with his finger.

He then dragged her into the house and on to the main stairwell where the assault took place. Afterwards, the hysterical child ran home to her mother and told her: "A man has done naughty things to me."

Giving evidence, the child's mother told the jury how her daughter was normally a "bubbly, confident and very trustworthy" little girl.

But when she ran home she was "terrified and it took her several minutes to calm the child down.

"She was shaking," said the mother.

"I couldn't make out at first what she was saying. She just clung to my leg and wouldn't let go," she said.

The child identified her attacker as a man with a dog whom her mother had recently seen. The horrified mother then phoned her family and reported the incident to police.

In an interview with police, which was shown in court, the girl said: "When he kissed me I felt sick."

She told the court he put his hands under her vest and inside her underwear.

She managed to escape when he went to find his dog.

Proceeding