‘Accused tried sex assault in car after getting me drunk’
ATHIRD alleged victim of a man who ran an outdoor education centre described how he got him drunk and tried to sexually assault him on a trip, a court has heard.
Robert Pugh, 75, was head of the Storey Arms centre in Powys between 1981 and 2005 and is facing trial for the indecent assault of three alleged victims.
The defendant, of Plasturton Avenue, Cardiff, denies 13 counts of indecent assault during a period between the 1980s and 1990s after it was claimed he would inappropriately touch three boys and attempted to sexually assault them.
Yesterday, Cardiff Crown Court heard from the third alleged victim, who went on trips to the Storey Arms with his school before being picked to attend on a more regular basis where he would help out, bringing him into contact with Pugh.
When asked by prosecutor Roger Griffiths how he was treated by the defendant, the witness said it seemed as though Pugh was giving him “preferential treatment”.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “There were engineered reasons for me to be with him, whether that was going into Brecon to get the papers or take us to the pub for a drink.
“I was given opportunities and gifts along the way and there was constant attention.
“There was a rise in physical attention after a year of starting these courses. There was an arm on the shoulder, a touch on the leg or him touching my foot with his foot.
“To me at the time it felt relentless because it was done in a forum which was open and noone else picked up on it, which almost validated it and made me feel like I was building it up in my head.”
Mr Griffiths asked the witness if the touching became inappropriate.
He described one incident when Pugh was said to have lain down on the grass beside him while they were looking at a falcon with his arm around him and his face next to his.
There were also occasions when Pugh was accused of entering his room and of touching him while sitting on his bed.
The witness said: “Sometimes he would invite himself in, sit on the bed and watch me get dressed, touch my leg and it would go further.
“I would jump back under the duvet and try not to be a young boy stood in my pants in front of a grown man.
“He would put his hand on my knee or my thigh and on occasion he would have made an effort to touch my genitals, but it would have been brief because I managed to push him away.
“I was confronted at the time and he would say, ‘What’s wrong?’ or ‘What are you doing?’ He would make a big deal out of me pushing him away.
“My regrets in all of this is that because of the confrontation [Pugh] presented, I sometimes felt it was easier to leave his hand on your thigh or knee rather than having to deal with the confrontation afterwards.”
The witness said he attended trips with the Storey Arms, which were also attended by Pugh, and there were also trips that they took with just the two of them.
He recounted how he was expected to share a two-man tent with Pugh on some of these trips and a pattern of touching was conducted by the defendant.
On one occasion, the witness was “horrified” to learn he would be sharing a double bed with Pugh.
He added: “There was no option. I was a teenager and had no money to find a different solution. “There would be an arm around you, a touch on the leg and a move to grab your genitals and me having to push him away each time.
“I was sleeping right at the edge of the bed but he was still encroaching on my personal space.”
The court heard that Pugh’s alleged behaviour peaked on one of these trips after he took the witness to a pub and bought him drinks which left him “very drunk”.
When they returned to Pugh’s car, it was claimed by the witness he attempted to sexually assault him.
He said: “He put his hand on my leg and when he touched my genitals I must have been drunk because I didn’t pull away and he said, ‘Relax, it’s OK’.
“It got to the place where he attempted to lean across to try and give me oral sex and at that point I came to my senses, pushed him away and left the car.
“There was a huge argument and I was explicit that I wasn’t prepared to do that sort of thing.”
The witness said he lost touch with Pugh and stopped attending the Storey Arms centre, and apart from a postcard sent to him by Pugh years later, he ceased to have contact with him and put the past behind him.
The trial continues.