January 14, 2022 4.30 pm This story is over 26 months old

Jury retire to consider verdict in trial of former primary school teacher

He denied historic sex offences against two girls

Lincoln Crown Court. | Photo: Kurnia Aerial Photography

A jury in the trial of a long serving Horncastle primary school teacher who denies historic sex offences against two girls will retire to consider their verdicts next week.

David Thomas, 68, a former teacher at Bowl Alley Lane Junior School, denies five charges which have been put before a jury at Lincoln Crown Court.

The jury heard Mr Thomas began teaching at the school in 1975 after previously working as a police cadet.

He spent 41 years working at the school but was questioned by police in the Summer of 2020 after allegations were made against him by two women.

On Friday Mr Thomas was questioned by prosecution barrister Luke Blackburn.

Four of the charges relate to one alleged victim and are alleged to have occurred between February 1980 and February 1983.

Thomas is also accused of one offence of indecent assault against a second alleged female victim aged under 14.

That offence is alleged to have occurred between September 1982 and September 1984.

In the witness box Mr Thomas denied acting inappropriately to either girl.

The defence have highlighted alleged inaccuracies in the complainant’s recollections as to where in the school Mr Thomas taught or spent playtime, and also if other members of staff were likely to be present after school.

They also argue the classroom where one of the incidents is alleged to have taken place had large windows and blinds that were kept open.

The jury are expected to retire to consider their verdicts on Monday after the trial judge, Judge John Pini QC, completes his summing up of the evidence in the case.

Thomas, of Harding Close, Sutton on Sea, denies two serious sexual offences and three charges of indecent assault.

The trial continues.