A FORMER British Airways pilot has taken to the witness stand to deny a string of child sex offences.

Bartle Frere, 50, from Shipton Gorge, pictured, is on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court accused of 25 child sex offences, including indecently assaulting two boys from West Dorset and arranging or facilitating the abuse of boys in India.

He denies all of the charges.

Frere took to the stand as the defence opened its case in the second week of the trial, and said he first met one of the boys, who has accused him of indecently assaulting him between January 2001 and 2003, when the boy was a pupil at a West Dorset primary school.

Frere said he got on “very well” with the boy, who is now 25.

He told the jury there were only three ‘sexual contact’ incidents between him and the alleged victim, with two occurring when the boy was aged between 14 and 15, and one when the man was 20.

He said all three were instigated by the alleged victim.

Frere told the jury the first incident happened as the two were playing a computer game.

Frere said the boy put Frere’s hand on his lap and when Frere initially removed his hand, the boy picked his hand up and forced it onto his lap.

Frere told the jury his hand was there “for about ten seconds” before he removed it for a second time, and then the boy started complaining of a headache.

He said: “I went to get him a glass of water for his headache, I kept thinking to myself, ‘what do I do?’ “I thought goodness knows what he’s going to say, I have got to say something.

“I said to him I wasn’t angry but if he wanted to talk about it we could.

“I told him this was not something I wanted to be involved in and I said something along the lines of it could ruin my life if I ever got involved in something like that.”

The next incident occurred a few weeks after when the boy asked Frere to play a game and blindfold him, the jury heard.

Frere told the jury: “I blindfolded him with a rugby sock and then he said I could do whatever I wanted. I told him I didn’t want anything to do with it and walked out of the room. I was quite disappointed and angry with him for trying it on.”

Frere said he and the complainant did have consensual sex once at Frere’s home, but when the alleged victim was 20 and that it was instigated by the alleged victim.

Being questioned by his barrister David Fisher, Frere told the jury he found the company of young boys “intellectually stimulating” and found them “aesthetically pleasing”, which was why he took photos of them, but said no sexual encounters with the boys took place and he gained no sexual satisfaction from the photos.

He also told the jury the indecent photos of Indian boys on his iPhone had been taken by the boys during one of his overnight stays in Chennai as part of his job with British Airways and he deleted them when found them, but didn’t realise they automatically transferred to his computer.

The trial continues today.