A MANAGER at a North-East home for child offenders carried out a series of sex attacks on women after late night drinking sessions, a court heard yesterday.

Married Christopher Winstanley Smith, a team manager at the Aycliffe Young People's Centre, in County Durham, is alleged to have attacked two women after escorting them home from the staff bar.

Winstanley Smith, 41, had been drinking until the early hours at the centre, which houses some of Britain's most disturbed and vulnerable children.

A third woman claims she was attacked by Winstanley Smith when he came to her home.

The manager, who lives in Vane Road, Newton Aycliffe, pleads not guilty to four charges of indecent assaults on three women, alleged to have been carried out between June 1, 1994, and June 10, 1995.

Prosecutor Peter Makepeace told Teesside Crown Court that the first attack happened after a drinking session until the early hours in the staff bar.

A woman claimed that she invited him in for a coffee when he said he was depressed.

When she put a comforting arm around him, he pounced on her.

Mr Makepeace said: "He immediately went to kiss her on the mouth and he did it passionately."

Winstanley Smith pinned her on the sofa and sexually assaulted her, said Mr Makepeace.

Eventually she managed to break free but Winstanley Smith followed her into the kitchen saying: "You know you want me, and no one will ever know."

Mr Makepeace continued: "She was saying, 'Stop, think what you're doing. Think of your wife'.

"That seemed to make him come to his senses."

A few weeks later, after leaving the the staff bar she arrived at her back door and he suddenly appeared.

Mr Makepeace said: "He immediately grabbed her, kissed her on the mouth, his hands were rubbing up and down all over her body."

Because of his drunken state, the woman was able to evade his advances and lock herself inside the house.

But the court heard that another woman was not so lucky.

The woman was drunk when Winstanley Smith insisted on escorting her home from the staff bar.

She went straight up to the bathroom to be sick and, when she came down, sat on a futon bed where she was spending the night.

Mr Makepeace said: "He pushed her on to her back on the bed and he was slobbering over her.

"She was shouting, 'Don't. Stop. Please get off'."

Winstanley Smith then carried out a sexual assault and, when the attack had finished, he left, the court heard.

The next day, said Mr Makepeace, she complained to another female member of staff.

A third woman also told the court that Winstanley Smith assaulted her at her home.

She said: "He kissed me on the lips and his hands were round the back of me.

"I pushed him away saying 'Please go away, I'm going to tell my husband'."

When Winstanley Smith was arrested in January last year, he accepted that he had had sexual relations with each of the women, but claimed they consented.

He claimed that one woman told him on a number of occasions that she was falling in love with him.

The trial continues.