Teacher denies sex offences against schoolboys

Opening the prosecution, Julian Goose, QC, claimed that Bruce Clark indecently assaulted or committed a serious sexual offence on three boys as they were working on staff accommodation.

He said the teacher also abused one of the boys when he had been confined to a detention room.

On each occasion the alleged victim was alone with Clark, it was claimed.

Clark, 69, of Barkston Ash, near Tadcaster, denies one charge of committing a serious sexual offence and five of indecent assault. The offences are alleged to have occurred between April 1973 and January 1977 when the boys were aged 15 or 16 and pupils at the school.

"The defendant, say the prosecution, took advantage of their being there when he went and sexually abused them," Mr Goose told York Crown Court.

After each alleged assault, Clark told the boys to keep quiet.

Mr Goose said that Clark started at the school in 1966 as a teacher and rose to be assistant head teacher.

The barrister said the teacher pulled the first boy to the ground by tugging on his jeans, stripped his legs and committed a serious sexual act on him while he was working on plastering staff accommodation.

He indecently assaulted the other two boys while they were also working on renovation, including in his own accommodation.

Mr Goose alleged that on a separate occasion Clark punched the second boy in the stomach and sexually assaulted him when he had been confined to a detention room because he had been in trouble.

Arrested last November, Clark denied any sexual or improper behaviour towards the boys.

In response to questions from Clark's barrister, John Lodge, former headmaster James Agnew told the jury that the teacher was married with children, was in charge of the school's Army cadets, and later rose to command the York area of the Army cadets with the rank of captain, but he did not use his rank in school.

The trial continues.

Updated: 14:57 Tuesday, September 24, 2002