Skegby Hall worker, 87, on trial for historic sexual abuse of boys

Nigel Pipe is alleged to have committed the offences when he was a housemaster at the approved school for boys, on Mansfield Road, Sutton, but denied all 27 charges when he first appeared at court in March 2019.

Pipe, of Llanwenarth View, Govilon, Abergavenny, Wales, faces 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.

Sarah Knight, prosecuting at Nottingham Crown Court, said the charges relate to five different complainants, who contacted the police separately.

The first complainant came forward in September 2015, after reading a newspaper article about Skegby Hall.

One alleged victim said he was alone in the library when Pipe said: “Shall we go up to your room?”

The court heard Pipe told him ‘this is going to hurt, but you will get used to it’, before raping him.

Ms Knight said: “He explained this type of abuse went on for quite a period.”

On one occasion the boy screamed when Pipe entered his room and was later told off, but he told police Pipe never interfered with him again.

Ms Knight said: “He said no one spoke about that subject matter at the time.”

‘You didn’t question anything’

The court heard another man, who was subsequently contacted by police, said: “I have been waiting for this call for 50 years.”

Ms Knight said: “He had carried it all his life and had told no-one about it - not even his family.”

Another complainant told of how he was woken by Pipe in ‘the dead of night’ and repeatedly abused.

“You did as you were told,” he said. “You didn't question anything.”

Skegby Hall was an approved school for boys who were ‘sent there by the court, usually if they had committed an offence’.

Other boys complained about Pipe at the time, the jury heard, but ‘little remains of the documentation and he wasn't charged at that time’.

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

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