Man, 76, pleads not guilty to 28 sex assault charges

A 76-year-old man has gone on trial charged with 28 counts of indecent and/or sexual assault of four children (persons under the age of 15) at various non-specific dates during the decade or so between 1988 and 1999.

He denies all charges.

The man is in ill health and the jury has been told there are to be shortened sittings on medical advice. The man, who was allowed to sit during the lengthy arraignment, answered “not guilty” to each of the 27 charges put to him yesterday, and to the single charge put to him on Tuesday. The reading out of the charges to him had to pause briefly while the man was given water.