A FORMER young inmate yesterday described how he had been groomed for sexual abuse at the hands of a prison officer, who later went on to become a church minister.

The man, now in his forties, said Neville Husband had developed a "strange friendship" before bullying him into committing sex acts and posing in the shower for photographs.

Mr Husband, 65, is alleged to have used his position in the kitchens at Medomsley Detention Centre, Consett, County Durham, to carry out sex attacks on six teenagers aged between 16 and 19, during the 1970s and 1980s.

He has denied all the charges.

Yesterday, giving evidence from behind a screen, the witness said he was sent to Medomsley at the age of 19 in the late 1970s, where Mr Husband selected him to work in the kitchens.

Mr Husband allegedly displayed a "strange friendship for a prison officer", asking where the teenager drank and what sports he liked.

The alleged victim said: "He told me how people could disappear in places like this and be buried at the bottom of the playing field and no one would know."

He said that Mr Husband intimidated him into having pictures taken of him in the shower and on four separate occasions forced him to commit a sex act.

"I was too frightened to do anything to stop it," he added.

Mr Husband, of Snows Green Road, Shotley Bridge, County Durham, became a minister in the United Reformed Church, responsible for two churches in Gates-head.

The church suspended him from his duties pending the outcome of the trial.

The trial continues.