Harrowing evidence from victim in sex abuse trial of Skegby Hall worker

Nigel Pipe, aged 87, of Llanwenarth View, Govilon, Abergavenny, is alleged to have committed the offences when he was a housemaster at the approved school for boys, on Mansfield Road, Sutton.

He denies four counts of a serious sexual offence with a boy under 16, 14 charges of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16 and nine counts of inciting a boy under the age of 14 to commit an act of gross indecency.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave his evidence in a video played at Nottingham Crown Court, yesterday.

He described how Pipe would enter his bedroom, sit on the side of his bed in his pyjamas and make him touch Pipe inappropriately.

“After the first time it became a regular, probably a nightly occurrence,” he said. “He would come in and do the same thing.

“I don't know how long that went on for – before the first time when he took me out of the bedroom.”

‘Bad experience’

The court heard Pipe allegedly took the boy downstairs to the basement area where he made him perform a sex act.

“I was never frightened there,” the complainant said. “My only bad experience of that place was Pipe.”

Visibly upset, the man said: “It was a long time, I don't know how long. One year. Two years. After making me touch him all the time.

“We were on a camping trip. And that's when he first raped me.

“It was the second night or the third night. He took me into his tent. He really hurt me. Because he was a big man and I was just a little boy.”

The complainant said he ‘seemed to recall’ an argument between Pipe and another member of staff shortly afterwards.

"My name was being mentioned all the time,” he said. “I don't know if that's true or not true. He never touched me after that. I don't remember him right from the beginning. I think he left before I left.”

The trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues.

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