Skegby Hall: Housemaster accused of sexually abusing boys

An ex-housemaster abused five vulnerable boys in the 1960s for his "own personal gratification", a court has heard.

Nigel Pipe is accused of 27 sex offences while working at Skegby Hall, an approved boys school in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

Nottingham Crown Court heard the 87-year-old "repeatedly abused his position of trust".

Mr Pipe, of Llanwenarth View, Govilon, Abergavenny, denies the offences.

Prosecutor Sarah Knight told the court Mr Pipe committed the offences while in his 30s and living at Skegby Hall with his wife.

Skegby Hall was an approved school that had the capacity to house 56 boys, up until its closure in 1992.

Ms Knight said: "An approved school was a residential institution where young people could be sent by the court, usually if they committed a criminal offence.

"Each of the complainants was a young boy at the time, each of those boys was vulnerable at the time, each came from a difficult background, and each of them had got into trouble.

"Finding themselves in the establishment that was Skegby Hall - and at that stage in their lives - they effectively had no voice."

The court heard one of the complainants said the relief housemaster raped him while other members of staff were not in the school.

"Nigel Pipe was a man who significantly, systematically, and repeatedly abused his position of trust at Skegby Hall by sexually abusing every one of those five young boys for his own personal gratification," Ms Knight added.

Mr Pipe denies four counts of a serious sexual offence with a boy under 16, 14 counts 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.

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

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