Conductor made 'childhood misery'

Robert King denies the charges

A leading British conductor accused of sexually abusing boys made one of his alleged victim's childhood "utter misery", a court has heard.

Robert King, 46, allegedly assaulted five youngsters, one when he was 12 years old, after plying them with alcohol, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

One of the boys said he was "sexually used" for years.

Mr King, of Redcliffe Gardens, Earl's Court, west London, denies 15 counts of indecent assault between 1982 and 1995.

'Off his rocker'

Mr King said the claims made him "nearly fall off my chair".

He told the court: "I thought somebody... had gone off his rocker."

The conductor has worked on film music for Ridley Scott's Kingdom Of Heaven, Shrek 2 and The Da Vinci Code.

The jury heard one of the boys was targeted when Mr King was director of music at a leading public school.

To a schoolboy, the defendant must have seemed a god-like figure Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse

Sarah Whitehouse, prosecuting, who said three of his alleged victims were under 16, claimed some of the attacks occurred "under the guise of some sort of game, such as a mock wrestle".

She said: "To a schoolboy, the defendant must have seemed a godlike figure."

Questioned by defence QC John Griffiths, Mr King denied claims some of the boys were given alcohol before the alleged abuse.

'Utterly miserable'

"Of course I might have had some alcohol in the house, but not trays of beer as has been suggested. I am not a beer drinker.

"If somebody had said they had drunk 15 bottles of beer in an hour, I would have remembered.

"I don't think I have ever seen anyone drink 15 bottles of beer in an hour."

He also denied allegations that one of the boys had been abused with "increasing seriousness" for three years from the age of 12.

Mr King said the teenager had called him up wanting to discuss something, and he had invited him to dinner. There the teenager gave him a letter.

"It basically said that 'during my teenage years you made me utterly miserable' - and these words are stuck, engraved in my brain - 'your sexual abuse of me made me unhappy throughout my teenage years'.

"I thought about this for some time. Do I bin it, or do I reply?

"But in the words of a wise headmaster, 'Pour treacle on it'.

"He sent five pages of vitriol to me. I sent a one-page email back saying, look, calm down, treacle," Mr King told the court.

The trial continues.