A TEACHER is standing trial for a string of indecent assaults on a teenager which date back more than 30 years.

Geoffrey Langer, of Farley Lane, Stonesfield, near Witney, denies the offences, alleged to have taken place in the early 1980s.

The 64-year-old, who was working as a science teacher at the Marlborough School, Woodstock, is accused of indecently assaulting the male victim for at least six months between the ages of 14 and 16.

Gary Pons, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, told the jury: “He liked Mr Langer, thought he was someone who was friendly and over the months a friendship grew.”

Langer was never the victim’s teacher.

The assaults are alleged to have started after Langer asked if the victim, who is now in his 40s, had ever looked at any pornographic material.

Mr Pons said: “As a teenager, he didn’t think anything of it and he took it as some friendly advice.”

The prosecution alleges Langer performed sex acts on the teenager, and persuaded him to perform sex acts on him.

Yesterday the victim described the abuse and how he didn’t admit what had happened to anyone until 2003.

It wasn’t until he told a former schoolfriend in 2011 he was persuaded to go to police.

He told the court: “I didn’t tell anybody for a long time. I would probably have got a thick ear and told to stop lying.”

But Tony McGeorge, defending, questioned the victim’s account of events, pointing out inconsistencies in the dates he told police officers the abuse happened. He said: “I suggest it didn’t happen at all.”

Langer, who has also taught at SS Philip and James School in Oxford, Tudor Hall School in Banbury and Bloxham School, denies three counts of indecent assault of a male under the age of 16, and one of a serious sexual offence of a person under the age of 16.

The trial is expected to continue until Friday.