A MAN has alleged that a children's home warden sexually abused him in a laundry cupboard - while the warden's wife was present.

The man, now 42, told a jury that Mrs Pat Littlewood had squeezed his bottom just before her husband, James Littlewood committed a serious sexual offence at St Camillus Roman Catholic Community Home School, at Scarthingwell, near Tadcaster.

He claimed he tried to complain to another staff member following the incident in the 1970s, when he was a teenage resident at the home.

"But he didn't want to know. He couldn't care less," he said. He claimed that after the staff member told Littlewood about his complaint, Littlewood had struck him repeatedly.

"I told lots of people. Social workers, even the police when I ran away. Five or six times I ran away that week. They just took me straight back.

"Nothing ever happened. The social worker never did anything. They just didn't listen to children in them days."

He said he had gone into care as a young child, after suffering serious burns in an accident, and had lived in several homes.

After the incident, he felt he could have died. "You go into these places to be safe."

The man was giving evidence at Grimsby Crown Court on the second day of the trial of Littlewood, now 58, of Wrawby, near Scunthorpe. Littlewood has denied committing a serious sexual offence against the man, along with three acts of cruelty against other boys at the home, plus 12 acts of cruelty, four serious sexual offences and an indecent assault at another home outside North Yorkshire.

Another man, also aged 42, told the jury he had been punched by Littlewood after running away from the home and being taken back by the police. The man, who had gone there because of persistent truanting from school, said he had been struck twice in the stomach.

lAfter a jury member fell ill, the trial was halted until Monday, when the man alleging sexual abuse will be cross-examined.

Updated: 10:39 Saturday, April 13, 2002