A man is accused of sexually assaulting girls from two generations of the same family, 25 years apart.

Peter Kirk, 68, is alleged to have indecently assaulted a girl in Sutton in the 1980s, when the girl was between 10 and 12 years old, Guildford Crown Court heard on March 26.

But 25 years later, when the girl’s daughter was not yet a teenager, Mr Kirk allegedly struck again and is accused of raping her daughter.

The second alleged victim had kept quiet until last year as Mr Kirk, now of Dorking, told her it was “a little secret”, the court heard.

The jury heard how her mother was helping her daughter on the internet when the allegations were made.

On February 12, 2011, the daughter was trying to join a social networking site but her mother explained how there were “weird people” who were “sick in the head”, and that she wanted to check the site first.

The girl then asked her mother if that meant Peter Kirk was sick in the head too, the jury heard.

Disturbed by the question, and with alarm bells ringing due to her own experiences with Kirk 25 years ago, the mother reported it to police the next day.

On February 14 last year, her daughter was interviewed by police and she told them details about what she claimed had happened over the previous two years. In the interview, which was shown by video link to the jury, the eight-year-old told police she had been raped and molested by Mr Kirk.

The trial continues.