A man who says he was assaulted when he was a schoolboy by a former Mayor of Exmouth said he froze during the encounters.

Ex-councillor John Humphreys is on trial accused of abusing the boy after meeting him when he was a teenager.

Humphreys is also alleged to have subjected another younger boy to more serious sexual assaults about a decade earlier.

The older boy gave evidence on the fourth day of Humphreys’ trial and told Exeter Crown Court that he had been sickened by what happened to him.

Humphreys is an alderman was Mayor of Exmouth from 2010 to 2012 and a councillor for 12 years.

He has denied all the allegations and said in a police interview that he was shocked and flabbergasted by them. He says he did not take part in any sort of sexual activity with either boy.

Gardening contractor Humphreys, aged 59, of Hartley Road, Exmouth, has denied three counts of a serious sexual assault and two of indecent assault on the younger boy and five counts of indecent assault against the older one.

The prosecution say he met the first boy at public toilets in Exmouth and went on to assault him.

They say he met the second boy around the time of a birthday and abused him.

The complainant told the jury that Humphreys took him back to his home for lunch and initiated sexual activity by putting a heterosexual porn video on his television.

In a recorded police interview, he said Humphreys then started touching him sexually.

He said: “He made comments and undid my trousers. I did not know what to do. I just froze until one of the people who was working for him came back and we were disturbed."

He said similar things happened on other occasions and he felt it lasted for hours, even though it probably only took a few minutes.

He said he knew Humphreys was gay and was a politician.

The witness said his mother ‘dragged him to the police station’ when she found out a couple of years later and he made a partial complaint at the time but was too embarrassed to tell officers that he had oral sex with Humphreys.

The trial continues