A FORMER approved school house master appeared in Court this morning charged with sexual offences against children.
Roderick Arthur Ryall appeared before Newton Aycliffe magistrates' court facing 13 allegations of abuse in the Sixties and Seventies, but withheld his plea.
The 67-year-old was a live-in house master at Aycliffe Approved School, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, at the time of the allegations.
In 1974, he joined Calderdale Borough Council, and spent three years on its child protection committee looking into child abuse, he left in 1988 as head of the council's social services.
Ten of the charges relate to his time at the approved school, and three are offences alleged to have taken place in West Yorkshire.
Dr Ryall, of Wheatley Drive, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, was given unconditional bail to be back at the court on December 10 for committal to Crown Court.
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