A JURY has started its deliberations into whether a former housemaster at a Jewish boarding school sexually assaulted pupils.

Trevor Bolton denies a catalogue of abuse against schoolboys while he was a geography teacher at Carmel College in Wallingford between 1968 and 1988.

A jury of seven women and five men heard that he would invite select groups of boys up to his flat to watch TV and smoke, then abused them – one while allegedly watching the football programme Match of the Day.

One man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury of seven women and five men that he first became close with Bolton because he was feeling homesick and started visiting his flat.

However, he said that quickly developed into him getting into Bolton’s bed when they were both naked.

The 78-year-old, now of Kestrel Way, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, denies 25 charges of abusing boys at the school, which closed in 1997.

The jury was sent out to begin their deliberations at Oxford Crown Court at about noon today.

The trial continues.