Clergyman Neville Husband dismissed allegations that he sexually abused young inmates at a North detention centre as fiction, a court heard yesterday.
Husband is accused of molesting six teenagers at the now-closed Medomsley Detention Centre at Consett, County Durham, where he was a prison officer in charge of catering.
Prosecutors claim Husband carried out the attacks in the 1970s and 1980s after the alleged victims were recruited to work in the kitchen.
But the married clergyman - who became a minister with the United Reform Church after 27 years with the prison service - told detectives the allegations were "a pack of lies" and "rubbish", Newcastle Crown Court was told. He suggested some of his accusers were simply "jumping on the bandwagon" after reading newspaper reports, the jury heard. Husband, of Snows Green Road, Shotley Bridge, denies 15 counts of indecent assault and one further serious sex offence. The trial continues today.
