AN army cadets officer put his hand down a young recruit’s trousers so he would stop slouching, a court heard.

George Walker struck while the victim, then aged 14 or 15, was on parade with Burnley and Padiham cadets in the 1970s, prosecutors said.

Walker, thought to have been a lieutenant or captain in the detachment, is on trial at Burnley Crown Court accused of molesting two boys under his command.

He has pleaded not guilty to 10 offences of indecent assault and two charges of gross indecency with a boy under 16 years old.

Timothy Ashmole, prosecuting, said the defendant, now 79 and living in Plymouth, had ‘power and authority’ over his alleged victims, which he used to carry out a range of sexual misconduct.

Jurors heard that he took hold of one victim’s genitals and squeezed them, while he was at the cadets.

Mr Ashmole said it appeared the defendant had ‘taken a shine’ to the same boy and took him on a trip to the theatre in Manchester, where he groped him in the relatively empty auditorium.

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The second boy recalled how, while he was on parade with the cadets, Walker touched his buttocks, said Mr Ashmole.

He told the court: “It is during a practice drill, to make sure the boy was stood to attention that George Walker did the rather strange act of putting his hands down the back of his trousers.”

Walker is also accused of kissing a second boy, on another occasion, rubbing up against him and placing his tongue in his ear, the court heard.Mr Ashmole said that during another drill-related incident Walker placed his nose in the boy’s mouth while touching his private parts.

He told jurors that neither of the boys had consented to the activities with Walker.

But given their ages at the time, consent would not be an issue during the trial, only whether the alleged behaviour happened.

The court heard that the alleged incidents did not come to light until 2015 and 2016.

Walker was interviewed about the matters in February 2015 and October 2016 and on each occasion firmly denied that there had been any sexual activity involving the alleged victims, who are now in their mid-50s.

The trial continues.