A 60-year-old man is on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old boy with a vacuum cleaner more than a decade ago.

John Thorpe is also alleged to have molested a little girl in his potting shed over 20 years ago after she helped him to pick peas in his garden.

Thorpe, of Park Hill Grove, Bingley, denies 12 charges involving the alleged sexual abuse of the two children, dating from the late 1990s.

The allegations include eight accusations of indecency with a child, three of indecent assault and one of indecent assault on a male.

Prosecutor Kirsty Watson told the jury yesterday that the girl was aged between six and nine when she claims Thorpe abused her in his garden shed after they had picked peas together.

She alleges he asked her to hold him intimately while he urinated into a bucket because his hands were dirty.

The jury was told he also requested that she take down her knickers before he touched her indecently.

The girl, now a woman in her 30s, went to the police in March last year.

Miss Watson said she did not tell anyone what had happened to her when she was young but later informed her husband that she had been sexually assaulted as a child.

The jury was told that the second alleged victim was sexually abused when he was nine.

He told the police he would play pool with Thorpe in his garage and both would urinate into a bucket.

The boy, now a young man, alleged that Thorpe indecently assaulted him with the nozzle.

Thorpe is also alleged to have used a magnifying glass on his own body and asked the boy to look through at it.

Miss Watson said the boy’s mother spoke to a police officer at the time but did not want matters to be taken further.

Thorpe told the police nothing sexual ever happened with either of the children.

The trial continues.