TV gardener 'abused trainees'

Dennis Cornish was a television gardener

A television gardener sexually abused vulnerable young men sent on council-run training courses to his nurseries, a court heard.

Dennis Cornish befriended the 15 to 20-year-olds, who had learning difficulties, and gave some of them part-time jobs at his garden centre.

Exeter Crown Court was told the assaults took place in his car and in a private room at a shop in the Four Cross garden centre near Torbay, Devon.

Mr Cornish, who was the resident gardener for Carlton Westcountry TV, denies six indecent assaults against three boys and one indecent assault on another boy, aged 15, between January 2000 and the end of March 2001.

The Crown says this was abuse by the defendant of these handicapped young men

William Hart, prosecuting

The jury was told Mr Cornish, 60, of Broad Path, Stoke Gabriel, Devon, has admitted three indecent assaults on a boy scout aged 15 to 16 between 1965 and 1968.

At the time Mr Cornish was a scout leader.

Mr William Hart, prosecuting, said a training centre had been run at the garden centre by Torbay Council Social Services, and the young men had been sent there to prepare them for a career in horticulture.

He said in one case Mr Cornish had become a friend of the family of one 20-year-old trainee, who had been employed part time and taken on visits to the cinema and to dog shows.

Mr Hart said the offences had only come to light when the young man told his mother he hated Mr Cornish, and did not want to accept a lift from him.

Laundry seized

He then revealed the allegations.

As a result the police seized and examined laundry from Mr Cornish's home, and further allegations followed.

Mr Hart said: "One of the young men said the defendant would give him sums of money, sometimes £20 or £50, after he had abused him.

"In the normal course of events if these activities had taken place with consent between a man of Mr Cornish's age and a 20-year-old male it would be legal.

"But here we are not dealing with a normal 20-year-old and the Crown says that must be taken into account.

"The Crown says this was abuse by the defendant of these handicapped young men."

The case continues.