A FORMER maths teacher and housemaster at a boarding school for boys has gone on trial accused of committing sex offences on pupils 30 years ago.

Retired Brian Truan, who is now 80, is facing indecency allegations involving the now-closed boarding school.

Truan, of Church Road, Peldon, has denied 12 allegations of indecent assault between July 1985 and January 1988 involving four boys aged between nine and 14.

Most of the incidents are said to have happened in the communal showers at the school or in Truan’s housemaster’s private bathroom and bedroom or at his home in Peldon.

It is said he touched the boys’ genitals and bottoms and performed a sexual act on one of them.

The school closed in 1994 when Truan retired.

The jury at Chelmsford Crown Court heard Truan allegedly supervised the boarders in the communal showers.

Tim Brown, prosecuting, said of one boy: “He progressed from simply supervising the bathing and washing of him, to physically doing that himself.

“He would wash his back, his chest and he would wash him between his buttocks and his genital area all of which distressed the boy.

“It was sexualised contact. It was not motivated simply by Truan wanting to make sure his pupil was clean.”

Mr Brown claimed it also happened to the same boy in the housemaster’s private bathroom at his school flat and alleged he also performed a sex act on him.

There was a police inquiry in 1988 in which Truan denied any misconduct.

However, the ex-pupil came forward and repeated what he claimed happened to him two dec ades before when he learned of a subsequent inquiry in 2014.

The trial continues.