A 15-YEAR-OLD boy who dabbled in heroin had unprotected sex more than 20 times with a female care worker at a children's home, a jury was told.

The boy also told Preston Crown Court how he thought 26-year-old Lisa Smith, who he described as "sweet and innocent", was carrying his baby at one stage.

Keith Harrison, defending, said the claims were "utter fiction" which the boy was now too scared to retract.

Smith, of Victoria Street, Wheelton, is also accused of having sex with another boy who, was aged 15 at the time the offences are alleged to have occurred at Leyland's Glendale Community Home.

She denies 16 charges of indecent assault, alleged to have been carried out between 1999 and 2001. She has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice and another charge of witness intimidation.

The teenager gave evidence through video-link, with two televisions projecting his responses to questioning into the courtroom.

He claimed that he first made sexual contact with Smith by touching her breast too see if he could "take it any further".

Mr Harrison, questioning him via a microphone in the courtroom, put it to the boy that the incident never happened because another child in the room at the time did not see anything. But the boy denied this and replied that the other child wouldn't have seen anything as he was lying down with his back to him and Smith.

He then claimed a relationship progressed and that he had sex with Smith on between 20 and 30 occasions in various places including the staff room.

Mr Harrison asked why no other members of staff were suspicious and the boy said: "It didn't happen until late at night.

"She was looked upon as a responsible member of staff and there was no need for them to check up on Lisa because they did not suspect anything was going on."

The boy told how they tried to use a condom the first time they had sex, but that it "hadn't worked for either of them", so it was removed.

He said they did not use a condom again.

Mr Harrison questioned why she would do this when he had occasionally used heroin, but the boy said he had tested clear of blood viruses.

The boy said on one occasion Smith had told him that she was pregnant, but, despite his attempts to find out, she would not reveal whether the child was his.

Mr Harrison challenged the boy and said: "I suggest that there was never any discussion about her being pregnant. Have you invented that?"

The boy replied: "There was. I wouldn't do anything like that."

At another point of cross-examination, the boy said: "I am not lying and have nothing to hide. I am doing what I think is right."

He also denied Mr Harrison's claim that he had told another member of staff that he was making up rumours about Smith.

Proceeding