A man has been found guilty of sexual abuse on his two former stepdaughters and their teenage babysitter more than three decades ago.

He had denied the accusations against him but was found guilty by a jury at Truro Crown Court this afternoon of all ten charges: five of indecent assault on a female, four of indecent assault on a child under the age of 13, and one of rape. The indecent assault charges are of a sexual nature.

The jury was unanimous in its decision, which was reached in little more than 90 minutes.

The charges related to three separate women, two of which were young children at the time of the allegations.

These were his stepdaughters, with the third being a babysitter when they lived in the Helston area.

The Packet has chosen not to name the defendant, in order to not identify the alleged victims by law, while at the same time raising awareness of the importance of people coming forward to speak up, even if it involves allegations against family members, and the signs of abuse in the family home.

Over the course of the trial the jury heard from the eldest stepdaughter via a filmed police interview.

She said her stepfather would encourage her over for "special cuddle time," adding: "As time progressed the hand around the shoulder would progress to hands in the underpants."

She said he would have the TV on, but with the sound off in order to listen for anyone to come in, but to anyone entering the room it would "look like just a father and daughter having a cuddle."

What she described as "probably the worst" incident was when she and her sister were still in bed. Her mum had left for her work and her stepdad entered the room, climbed into her bed, while her sister still slept.

She described being "petrified" as he lifted up her nightdress, touched her across her body and attempted to rape her, which she resisted, and she said it "didn't go any further than that."

It was not long after that she spoke to her mother, telling her: "Mum he keeps touching me, tell him to stop."

She said it did stop but it continued to be a house of "sexual innuendo" and her stepfather would regularly sit with their mother, putting his hands down her bra in front of them.

When the family moved away from the area the issue was raised again with their mother, and the woman said she remembers being told: "Don't say anything, it's all OK. You can't say anything because if you say anything and [the defendant] goes to jail for this we lose everything."

The court also heard from the younger sister, who said she had now finally decided to go the police because the anger and stress of not telling anyone of the the assaults were making her life a misery.

The final straw came when she found her self stamping on her car's navigation device in the middle of the road and she realised she wasn't in her right mind.

She claimed her stepfather touched her inappropriately when he was teaching her to swim each week.

She said there was constant physical, verbal and sexual comments and innuendo which were "disgusting". She hated wearing her nightie because he would sexually assault her, between the ages of six and 15, she said.

She was self harming as teenager and told her guidance teacher what was happening. She retracted the allegations when the police and social workers came to her house because of the reaction of her mother and stepfather and the fear of being taken into care.

She denied the defence's claim that she had made the allegations out of spite because there were lots of arguments in the house.

The third complainant was a babysitter for the family as a teenager. She described how she and her boyfriend at the time had been out with the defendant and his partner, to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Afterwards they returned to the defendant's house, and she ended up being sick in a laundry basket in the defendant's house, before lying down on a bed.

She claimed the defendant then lay next to her and touched her over her body with his "hands everywhere," before putting his finger in her pants and sexual abusing her.

She said she made an excuse to go to the toilet, and after doing so had run out the house and back home.

However, she said she was "petrified" to find the defendant had followed her. She claimed he grabbed her and said: "I love you. We're alright aren't we?"

She said yes and she just needed to get inside.

In subsequent cross-examination in court, the woman denied the suggestion that the defendant had in fact only sat on a chair next to the bed to check she was OK.

In his evidence the man denied ever going for drinks with them, and claimed: "I asked how she was. She just asked me to get into bed with her. I thought it was very strange, out of order. I said 'Don’t be silly' my wife and your boyfriend are downstairs. It was out of character. I didn’t touch her in sexual way."

In a police interview, he said in relation to an allegation that he would be in the bathroom while his stepdaughter showered, he said: "We would sit in the bathroom together; she was in the shower and I sat on the toilet and we'd talk about her day. Then we would swap over. She was about 15/16/17."

He said he would be in a dressing gown and the toilet was directly opposite the shower, adding: "There was a curtain but she never closed it." He denied brushing past her as they swapped over.

With regards to his younger stepdaughter, he told police he "may have been involved in teaching her to swim," adding that if he had been he would "never have done anything that was sexually inappropriate."

He went on to add: "As to the sexual side of things, the only thing I could think of is once when [the witness] was quite young, we had been down on the beach and she had sat in the sand without her pants on. She was lagged in sand.

"When we got home I hosed her down in the sink. All it was, was to remove the sand from her [private parts]. That's the only thing I could think of as being considered as inappropriate, and it was not inappropriate. It was purely and simply to clean her."

When asked if he had touched her with his hands he said: "Not that I can recall."

He told the court all the allegations against him were made up. When asked why all these people lying about him he said: "I don't know. I am not lying and I’m afraid they must be telling lies because it certainly did not happen the way it was portrayed."

The defendant is due to be sentenced next week in the same court.