A MAN who alleges he was abused in a park’s public toilets as a boy described how a hole in the wall was used to spy on those committing sexual acts.

The complainant became emotional when giving evidence in the trial of five men at Teesside Crown Court who deny sex charges in relation to the Burn Valley toilets, close to Hartlepool town centre, in the 1970s and 1980s.

The alleged victim said he was sat in a cubicle and was using his foot to keep the door shut as it was unable to be locked.

He said one of the men, Joseph Brown, then pushed his way in and “forcefully” attacked him.

He said: “He tried the door, he pushed it. That’s what they did. If someone was in a cubicle long enough they would give it a little shove and if there was no resistance on the door they would go in.”

He was then told to wait until the defendant, now a pensioner, had gone.

The witness said: “I was making noises, I was in pain, it was a bit muffled.”

He added: “It [the abuse] just fades. You forget about it, you move on.”

Earlier in his evidence he described how a hole in the wall at the toilets was used to view people urinating or playing with themselves.

The man said he had “buried” the abuse he alleges and never noticed the defendants’ – all from Hartlepool - years later in the town, as there was no connection between them.

But that changed when police contacted him as part of their investigation and he became regularly aware of Brown, who he saw in a pub.

The witness spoke about another defendant, Peter Watts, attending the toilets and abusing him.

He said he would let him touch him, adding: “At that age I was not going to fight back.”

Brown, 81, of Front Street, Hart, and 72-year-old Watts, of Oxford Road, deny alleged indecent assault offences along with a third man, Alan Edmenson, 66, of Ibrox Grove.

Two other men, Robert Black, 71, of Derwent Grange and Geoffrey Hillier, 72, of Haswell Avenue, have pleaded not guilty to charges of indecent assault and serious sexual offences.