TV weatherman Fred Talbot sexually abused five schoolboys, court told
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Version 0 of 1. Television weatherman Fred Talbot used his “boundless energy” and “extrovert personality” to help gain the affection and trust of five schoolboys he sexually abused, a jury has heard. Talbot, 65, is said to have indecently assaulted his victims between the late 1960s and the early 1980s during his former career as a teacher. Four of the complainants were teenage pupils at Altrincham grammar school for boys, where Talbot taught biology. Talbot, who rose to fame leaping across a floating weather map in Liverpool’s Albert Dock on the ITV show This Morning, denies all sexual activity with the pupils from Altrincham and has pleaded not guilty to all 10 charges against him. Opening the case for the prosecution on Tuesday, Neil Usher told the court that Talbot, now 65, was well liked by his pupils. “The very qualities that made Mr Talbot so successful as a TV celebrity – his boundless energy, his infections enthusiasm and his extrovert personality – helped him, we say, gain the affection and the trust of these schoolboys, trust which we the prosecution say Mr Talbot then repeatedly abused when, away from their parents on school trips organised by Mr Talbot, he sexually assaulted each of them.” The jury heard that Talbot was “something of a chancer – one of those men who repeatedly and regularly tries it on with his intended victim as often as he can in the hope that his sexual advances will not be rejected, or at the very least his sexual advances will be met by a passive response from each of the boys concerned - a passive response, because of confusion, fear, intoxication or youthful inexperience of how to react to being placed in such an unusual, shocking, and no doubt on occasion frightening position.” Usher continued: “We say that like many adult child abusers who are in a position of authority, who are confident and plainly well liked by their peers, he gambled that each of the boys he took advantage of would find it impossible to speak out and tell other adults what Mr Talbot had done, either through fear of not being believed or through the inevitable embarrassment about speaking to parents or other teachers about embarrassing matters of a sexual, indeed homosexual, matters.” Talbot, wearing a blue jumper and checked shirt, repeatedly shook his head in the dock as the prosecution outlined the allegations against him. The jury heard that some former pupils had complained to their parents about Talbot’s behaviour. They raised the alarm with Altrincham grammar, resulting in Talbot’s hasty departure from the school and the “abrupt end” to his teaching career in May 1984, Usher said. Two boys, then 15, say Talbot propositioned them after inviting their class around to his house in Bowden, Altrincham, to view “a particular alignment of planets” through his telescope. One of those alleged victims claims Talbot, his favourite teacher, showed him an album of photographs from previous schools trips, which included pictures of other boys’ genitalia, and propositioned him. The prosecution claims that Talbot also propositioned another boy that night. After being rebuffed by both, Talbot apologised and offered them his own bed rather than them sleep on the floor in the spare room. “They agreed but their gratitude was shortlived as Mr Talbot’s next words to them were: ‘make sure you leave room for me in the middle’,” Usher told the court. The boys complained to their parents, and very soon Talbot left the school. The headteacher at the time rang the parents to say Talbot had “resigned with immediate effect”. One of Talbot’s teaching colleagues at the time has since told police that Talbot admitted he had to leave as he had propositioned a pupil, the court heard. One of the Altrincham grammar school complainants first went to police in 1992, 1996 and 1998, claiming Talbot had sexually abused him during his time at the school. No charges were brought at the time. The complainant admits he previously exaggerated what Talbot had done to him because he was “frustrated and angry that the police had not taken his complaint seriously”, Usher said. He now claims Talbot abused him in 1976, when he was 14 or 15 and on a weekend canal trip in Cheshire organised by Talbot. He alleges that Talbot got the boys drunk before suggesting they “pretend to be girls so that they could have an ‘orgy’ which had to be kept secret”, Usher told the jury. Another of the complainants from Altrincham told police Talbot sexually assaulted him in a pub in Bowden when he was 16. A further complainant, also 16 at the time, told detectives that Talbot assaulted him in 1982 when the teacher was holding a party in his Bowden home. The case is scheduled to last up to four weeks. |