THE jury was considering its verdict in a rape case at Warrington Crown Court as the Guardian went to press.

Damien McShane is accused of raping a woman, indecently assaulting a girl three times and of two counts of cruelty to a boy.

The 38-year-old from Cleveleys Road in Sankey Bridges denies all the offences.

Summing up the case, prosecutor Simon Mills told the court on Tuesday that the girl remembered intimate details of being indecently assaulted by McShane.

He said: "The prosecution say it's uncomfortable levels of detail which are convincing."

Mr Mills said the defence suggested the boy had made up his assault claims but asked rhetorically: "How could he have gotten himself involved in a wicked conspiracy, launched for no apparent reason?"

And he said the woman gave her evidence of rape in a 'clear, matter-of-fact way'.

Simon Berkson, defending, told the court that the girl had made allegations of abuse against other people before.

He said the boy's evidence was a mixture of 'exaggeration and downright lies', a contrast to the 'clear and concise' evidence of the defendant.

He said at the start of the trial that the jury were told to look for 'pathways to the truth' and added: "We have been treated to the kind of pathway we would find in the Maize Maze, just outside Warrington."