Updated: Man, 90, denies abusing 10-year-old boy at Ashfield school in historic sex abuse case

A man who claims he was subjected to a series of sexual assaults as a ten year old boy has spoken of his feelings of shame and how the alleged ordeal blighted his life for more than 50 years.
Dennis Young is on trial at Nottingham Crown Court.Dennis Young is on trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
Dennis Young is on trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

A 90-year-old man has gone on trial accused of committing historic sex offences against a boy at an Ashfield school more than 50 years ago.

Dennis Young denies seven counts of indecently assaulting on a male under 14 at Skegby Hall School in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Young was a resident teacher at the approved school and the boy was aged 10 when the offences are alleged to have happened.

Nottingham Crown Court.Nottingham Crown Court.
Nottingham Crown Court.

All seven charges are under the sexual offences act 1958.

They include intimate touching of the boy when he was in the bath, making him touch Young intimately, simulating sex in a bed with the boy and attempting to make him take part in an indecent act.

Young denies the allegations.

The case for the prosection was opened today.

Nottingham Crown Court.Nottingham Crown Court.
Nottingham Crown Court.

A jury was told the boy was sent to a series of approved schools after he became involved in petty crime after his father beat him.

On a video shown in court, the man told how he was subjected to a series of indecent assaults over three years he was at Skegby Hall, where Young was a teacher.

The man, now aged in his 60s, said Young took great enjoyment in washing boys.

He said Young would climb naked into his bed when he was alone in his room, while the touching would happen regularly at bath-time.

“He used to take great enjoyment washing me between my thighs and my backside.

“Even now to this day I can’t get into a shower with other men it freaks me out.

He said Young would threaten him with Borstal or reward him with sweets when he tried to resist.

The complainant said Young would come into the bedroom which he shared with another boy, when he was alone.

He said his teacher would drop his shorts, pull back the blankets and get into bed with him.

There he subjected him to a simulated sex act.

On one occasion he said Young had tried to make him perform an indecent act.

He said; “I knew it was wrong – I didn’t know anything about sex at all.”

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he had reported the behaviour to the school headteacher, but was told to go away and “not be a silly boy”.

He had kept quiet about his ordeal for decades until the subject of historical abuse had become a public debate.

On the video of his police interview shown in court, he added: “I am so ashamed as if it was my fault.

“It has happened to me - it is something I have had to live with all these years . Sometimes just watching TV brings it all back.”

He added: “This has affected me badly. i have not been able to keep a relationship and I don’t make friends easily.”

The court heard the first person the complainant had told about his ordeal was a Chad journalist and an article was published in 2014.

He contacted the police and was reluctant to identify himslf. Later the police contacted him to give a formal statement.

Young was identified on a photograph and arrested after police traced him to his home in York.

He had said he had been a teacher, but could not remember the boy.

He denies each of the allegations, saying they were “impossible”.

The case is expected to last four days.

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