A CONVICTED child abuser is on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of 27 offences of rape and sexual assault involving five boys.

Neil Watkin, 48, is said to have molested the youngsters between 1994 and 2004 after inviting them to his flat at Kelso House, Sterling Crescent, Holme Wood, Bradford, and giving them money.

The jury was told that Watkin was jailed for two-and-a-half years in January, 2012, for sexually assaulting a ten-year-old Bradford boy in the summer of 2010.

In October, 2012, while Watkin, was in prison, a man finally found the courage to ring the police to say he had sexually abused him when he was a young teenager, prosecutor Richard Gioserano said.

The alleged victim said he had seen the case in the papers, telling an officer: "If a kid can come forward, why can't I come forward now?"

Mr Gioserano said the man gave the police the names of other local boys who had visited Watkin's flat more than a decade ago and three more, now grown men in their late 20s and 30s, said he had abused them.

A fifth man contacted the police after watching a feature on the BBC's Crimewatch programme urging male victims of rape to come forward. The court heard he knew nothing about the allegations made by the other men.

Watkin, now of Allerton Road, Allerton, Bradford, denies two offences of rape, 16 counts of indecent assault, eight of gross indecency and one attempted buggery.

Mr Gioserano said Watkin moved to Bradford from Hampshire in 1994 when he was 28.

He had several jobs, including employment at Morrisons supermarket in Thornton Road.

It is alleged he began abusing the boys soon after he arrived in the city. All were under 16 and one was 11-years-old.

One man said he was 12 or 13 when Watkin asked him to put on trousers from a Little Chef uniform.

They were too big and the defendant put his hand down to see how baggy they were.

The jury heard that other boys were molested much more seriously, with one being raped twice in Watkin's bedroom.

One youngster was abused in a cinema toilet, with Watkin telling him it was "normal", the court was told.

Mr Gioserano said two of the alleged victims went on to commit sex acts with Watkin when they were young adults.

Watkin told the police boys often came to his flat in those days and he gave them money but nothing sexual ever happened.

He had relationships with two of them but only when they had become adults.

The trial continues.