A FORMER volunteer worker, who looked after witnesses at Newcastle Crown Court, subjected a teenage boy to a series of serious sexual assaults, a court heard yesterday.

The youth was afraid to tell anyone and returned to his alleged attacker's flat in the city as he believed he had a gun.

But the jury heard how the youth went to police soon after he moved from the North-East to Clacton, in Essex.

The prosecution at Chelmsford Crown Court alleges 61-year-old James Littler was responsible for the assaults between January 1997 and June 1999. He denies two indecent assaults and six serious sexual offences.

Diane Pigot, prosecuting, said Mr Littler became friendly with the boy's mother when they were both doing voluntary work at Newcastle Crown Court.

Mr Littler's job was looking after witnesses - some of them children - during trials.

Mr Littler, now living in Horsforth, Leeds, made friends with the teenager and would stay at his flat on occasions.

Miss Pigot said that Mr Littler carried out an indecent assault on the youth when he was aged about 13 and it developed into serious sexual assaults as time went on.

She added that the assaults took place in Mr Littler's Newcastle flat on a regular basis.

Miss Pigot said the teenager was examined by a doctor who found a scar which was consistent with what the boy claimed Mr Littler had done to him.

The assaults stopped when Mr Littler moved to Leeds and the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, moved to the Clacton area.

The trial continues.