The former principal trustee of a York private boarding school carried out sexual abuse on five separate children between 1982 and 2010, a court has heard.
Brian Martin, who was once chairman of the governors at Queen Ethelburga’s school in York, went to “extreme lengths” to groom one boy who was aged between 14 and 15, prosecutors allege.
A court heard how the defendant owned the land in Thorpe Underwood, York, on which the school was once based, giving him “access to children”.
At the start of the 68-year-old’s trial at Leeds Crown Court, jurors were told on Tuesday (May 29) how he lied to the boy by telling him he had the opportunity to meet a celebrity, before stripping him naked in order to check for needle marks as he was “insistent” he could not bring anyone who did drugs.
Increasingly extreme
Opening the case for the prosecution, Mark McKone claimed the incident “shows the extreme lengths the defendant was prepared to go to get (the boy) on his own so as to satisfy his sexual desires”.
The court also heard how the defendant later told the boy, who did work for him but did not attend the school, that the celebrity wanted a picture of him naked and in an “aroused state”.
Martin later sexually assaulted the boy as he came out of the shower following an event at his home before taking him out in his “flashy car” and abusing him, prosecutors claim.
The court was also heard how Martin’s advances towards the boy got increasingly sexual and extreme in their nature, including repeated attempts to force him into anal sex during visits to a hotel.
During an interview, the alleged victim said: “Sometimes he would try to kiss me, sometimes try to massage me, have me massage him.
“Sometimes he would take my head and have oral sex.”
‘Kicked like a mule’
He later added that he was sure that “75%” of the supposed incidents happened before he was 16 years old, adding that the last time he was abused was when he was 19.
In one instance, the alleged victim claimed that he “kicked like a mule” in an attempt to wrestle Martin off him as he made advances.
In other counts, the defendant is accused of sucking the breasts of a girl aged between 12 and 15 and licking the same girl’s private parts.
Martin denies 10 counts of indecent assault, one count of making indecent images, three of attempted buggery, one of buggery, three of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, three of sexual activity with a child, and three of sexual assault.