Former foster carer and ex-teacher denies sexually assaulting two girls

Derby Crown Court heard on September 18 how Christopher Metcalfe, 71, of Cross Lane, Blidworth, allegedly put his hand up the skirt of one complainant and allegedly subjected her to cruelty when he was her foster carer at a farm in South Normanton.

Mr Metcalfe is also accused of touching the private parts of another youngster and allegedly French kissing her at the former Bolsover swimming baths when she was a pupil of the accused’s at a Derbyshire primary school.

Prosecuting barrister Sarah Knight told the ongoing trial Mr Metcalfe is accused of abusing the two girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when he was aged in his 30s and they were aged between nine and ten.

She said: “It seems they were experiencing a sinister side to Mr Metcalfe when he would insidiously sexually abuse them.

“The sexual abuse they each complain of was similar to one another and took place about the same time.”

One of the complainant’s who had been in Mr Metcalfe’s foster care complained to police in 2016 after officers had launched a general inquiry into possible abuse of children in care and she also complained that the accused had hit her with a belt and locked her in an animal outhouse with biting geese.

The other complainant, who had since been living in America as an adult, came forward in 2014 to claim Mr Metcalfe had sexually molested her during a school trip to the swimming baths.

Mrs Knight added: “Christopher Metcalfe was in a position of authority and in a position of trust. He was a teacher and he was a foster carer and he had responsibilities to both girls.

“And the prosecution case is that he plainly took advantage to interfere with the complainants and nobody suspected a thing at the time because he was a respected man in a position of authority.”

Mr Metcalfe told police he did not recall the complainant who claimed he had fostered her and he denied he had done anything inappropriate regarding the second complainant.

The court heard that Mr Metcalfe had been subject to a previous trial where he was acquitted on two different counts of indecent assault concerning separate complaints from each of the complainants,

But that trial jury could not agree on a verdict concerning the accusations which Mr Metcalfe is now facing again as part of further trial.

Mr Metcalfe, who later taught at Skegby Hall, has pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and cruelty concerning his time as a foster carer and he has pleaded not guilty to indecent assault on a second complainant who had been one of his pupils.

The offences were alleged to have been committed during the late 1970s.