A FATHER told jurors how he is angry with himself for not telling police when his underage daughter said she slept with two older men.

His then 14-year-old daughter asked him not to tell police but he now regretted not doing so until three years later, he told a court hearing evidence about the alleged abuse of 13 girls.

The father gave evidence yesterday at the trial of Osmon Koroma, 30, of Norton Road, Hove, and Max N'Gasa, 24, of Cranmer Avenue, Hove, who are accused of sexually abusing the girls over several years, which they both deny.

Prosecutors at Lewes crown Court said they groomed the girls by buying them cigarettes and alcohol and inviting them up to Koroma's then flat in Wick Parade, Littlehampton.

The girl whose father gave evidence yesterday says that Koroma had sex with her on the roof of the local car park and N'Gasa also had sex with her in a bed, in 2012 when she was aged 14.

Yesterday her father said as he and his daughter sat in their car one day in 2012 in Wick Parade, they heard two black men who looked in their twenties and thirties on the balcony "being quite loud".

He said he had jokingly asked his daughter whether she fancied them, and she had "turned round and said that she had slept with them".

He said: "I was quite angry at first, I wanted to get out of the car and confront the gentlemen as any father would but [she] begged me to just leave it alone and drive off, so we did not get out of the car at all; I just drove off and went back to my house."

He said his daughter seemed upset and embarrassed and said she would prefer to speak to his partner.

Questioned by prosecutor Jennifer Knight, he said: "At the time I said about reporting it but she was going 'no' - she did not want me to do anything about it. She just wanted it to be sort of left how it was.

"Me personally now, I wish I had reported it - I am angry at myself for not doing that."

He told police about the conversation during an interview last year.

The men deny sexual activity with a child in respect of this complainant, as well as all the other charges they face.

The trial continues.