A "warlock" gravedigger accused of raping four schoolgirls in a church yard made one alleged victim entice her friends in to have sex with him, a court heard.

William Lambert, 74, manipulated the Cheam High School pupil, aged between 14 and 16, into introducing other girls to him at "the Shed" youth club he ran more than 20 years ago in St Dunstans Church yard in Cheam, Croydon Crown Court heard on Thursday.

In a video of a police interview shown to the jury she described how she would hold their hands as he raped them in an "initiation ceremony" after claiming he could pass on his magic powers by having sex with them.

She said: "He made me feel like I was helping them while I was there holding their hand."

She described "laughing and joking" with one of the girls. When asked how she now felt about what happened, the woman, now 37, said: "I feel cheap and I feel bad that I got my friends involved."

The court heard Lambert preyed on vulnerable girls saying his powers could solve their problems.

He is accused of raping girls, aged between 11 and 15 over several years between 1985 and 1990 while working as a groundsman and gravedigger at the church yard.

The woman, who gave evidence behind a screen, described how she had been previously abused from the age of six,. She said Lambert claimed he could give her powers, which "seemed a lot better then the life I had got."

She described the club as "a way of escaping."

She said: "He (Lambert) was lovely. He made us feel good and that's when he started talking about witchcraft or 'witchy-poo' and 'Golden Dawn' - the witchcraft he was in.... I was fascinated. All my friends had problems and wanted to escape those problems."

She said she had sex with the former soldier more than 10 times in a private shed adjoining the youth club.

She said he would lock her in a private shed joined to the youth club, before she had to remove the bottom half of her clothing and lie on a table, and he would draw across a red velvet curtain so they could not see each other then have sex with her.

She said she knew it was him because he would talk to her during sex and at times he would stroke her stomach and said "it was ok" and she recognised a "love hate" tattoo on his hand.

She said: "I didn't tell anyone. It was our secret."

She also said he once had sex with her on the floor of the youth club and on a tombstone in the graveyard.

She described how afterwards she would wait to get her power whuch Lambert told her could help people and animals.

She said: "I thought he could offer me something I needed. He could help me be a bit stronger than I am."

Mr Lambert denies four counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault.

The trial continues.