A FORMER Wisbech Port Authority supervisor, crippled by an accident at work, claims the woman he is alleged to have sexually abused decades ago is after the compensation he received for his injuries.

John Allen, now 63, is on trial at Cambridge Crown Court for 13 offences of indecency and rape in the 1990s involving a girl aged from nine to 15.

On October 9 2009 Allen, a marine services supervisor working with boats, suffered a serious industrial accident in which his legs were injured. He had to have his left leg amputated below the knee in February this year due to complications.

The jury heard on Friday that he has received �250,000 in compensation after his employer of 30 years accepted responsibility for the accident.

It emerged on Friday, during evidence from prosecution witnesses, that Allen believes the alleged victim, now 27, knew about his potential compensation and that she wanted money.

Allen, of St Edmund’s Drive, Emneth, who is in a wheelchair in the dock, denies four offences of indecent assault, eight of indecency with a child and one of rape.

Allen, who was arrested in January 2011, claims that none of the incidents happened and the woman is making it up.

Chartered psychologist Wendy Large told the court that Allen was receiving therapy sessions from her after his accident.

In January 2010 he was agitated and said he had been accused of sexual abuse. Miss Large told the jury Allen said “it was lies, that there had been something but she had over-dramatised”.

Cross-examined by Allen’s barrister Caroline Allison, Miss Large said: “He said he thought she wanted the compensation.”

At the start of their sessions she had advised him that their discussions were confidential unless he revealed a serious crime. In February 2012 she made a statement to police, she added.

Giving evidence, the alleged victim agreed she had first made an informal complaint to police in September 2010 and kept changing her mind before she followed it through in January 2011.

She denied she had said she could “get him into trouble” or that she was making up the allegations because she was after Allen’s money.

“No, I am saying it because I have carried it around for 10 years and I want to get it off my chest,” she told the jury.

She added: “I didn’t think anyone would listen to me or believe me.”

Earlier, the jury was told that the alleged offences only came to light when the victim, now 27, began self-harming.

The court heard that the alleged abuse happened in a property in Wisbech and in a caravan at Wood Lakes, near Stowbridge, which Allen used when fishing. It is claimed he told the alleged victim not to tell anyone.

The trial continues.