A MOTHER accused of “forcing” a girl to have sex with men for money also preyed on a second teenage schoolgirl, a court heard.

Karen Potter, from Worthing, is standing trial at Brighton Crown Court accused of abusing a 13-year-old.

Jurors have now heard that just weeks before the schoolgirl spoke to officers, her school friend also claimed she was subjected to a similar attack.

Alan Gardener, prosecuting, said: “The pair had not spoken in the months leading up to the incident and contacted police separately.”

The school friend, then 16, spent an evening at Potter’s house in Worthing. They took a selfie together which Mr Gardener suggests had a “more sinister” motivation – to entice Potter’s friend Neil Oxlade to pay for sex.

He arrived in his “new” yellow Mitsubishi to take them for a drive before raping the teenager and taking explicit pictures in a deserted car park by a field near Amberley while Potter was present, the court heard.

The victim feared she would be “left in the field” if she did not consent, Mr Gardener said.

Oxlade was captured on CCTV at around 11.30pm at a garage getting petrol and using the cash machine. That night Potter gave the girl £150 and asked if she wanted to carry on earning “easy money” but she said no, jurors were told.

When she went home, her mother was suspicious about the money and the girl told her what happened.

The mother confronted Potter who denied everything but later sent her a text message which said: “I’m so sorry I let you down. She [the girl] really does mean the world to me so I should’ve said no.”

Mr Gardener said this was an “important admission” but Potter claims she was referring to going out in the car and denied all knowledge of the sex allegations.

When Oxlade, now 37, and of Tanllwyfan, Colwyn Bay, Wales, was arrested later that year police searched his house and found “vulgar” pornographic material in his garage and a tripod, the court heard.

Jurors were told no camera and no pictures of Potter and the victims were found.

Both teenagers gave "truthful accounts" of the abuse, Mr Gardener told jurors.

Oxlade, described by his alleged victims as a "fat man with glasses", bought a new phone just days after the confrontation between Karen Potter and the second victim's mother, the court heard.

Potter later admitted to police she had spoken to Oxlade after the conversation, Mr Gardener said. His former phone has not been found by police. When arrested he refused to take part in a line up. Victims identified him from a picture.

Potter, 35, of Harrison Road, Worthing, is accused of arranging the prostitution of both girls, of setting them up to be raped by men and for taking part in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Oxlade faces charges of rape, paying for sex with a child and sexual activity in the presence of a child, possessing extreme pornographic images of children and animals. They deny the allegations.

The trial continues.