A FORMER Scout leader accused of historic sex offences forced an alleged victim into a cupboard because he wouldn’t “play Peter’s games”, a court heard.

Peter Hamilton-Harvey appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday, charged with 13 counts of various sex offences against two children, which allegedly took place during the 1980s.

Jurors heard how he would sexually touch his victims, forcing one of them to perform a lewd act on him, and once raped him under the guise of giving him “Peter’s love”.

His alleged victim claimed at one point he was shut in a cupboard and wasn’t let out until he agreed to “play Peter’s games”.

“I still have nightmares about this now,” he said. “He actually locked me inside the cupboard in the kitchen. I remember being quite terrified. He said ‘I’m not going to let you out unless you play Peter’s games’. That still messes my head up.

“I was a kid, I was excited to learn new games,” he added. “I was too young to understand what he was doing.”

He told the court Hamilton-Harvey would get excited, causing his voice to go “camp”.

“That still haunts me,” he said.

The alleged victim said he remembered feeling torn from his parents when the defendant said telling them about the abuse would only make them angry.

It wasn’t until years later that he saw Hamilton-Harvey outside a pub in the Triangle area of Bournemouth and the memories started flooding back causing him to eventually come out with his story, he added.

Prosecuting, Adam Feest said Hamilton-Harvey befriended his victim’s family at a church, soon developing a relationship with them.

Mr Feest told jurors the victim stepped forward after the press coverage of the Jimmy Savile enquiry. “It was that that gave him the confidence to come forward to the police.

“You will understand children place trust in adults. Every now and then that very special relationship is seriously abused by the person supposedly looking

after the child.“It isn’t until many years later when that child has become an adult and starts to come to terms with what’s happened that that abuse of trust can be put right, and that’s what this case is about.”

Defending, Robert Grey told the court the victim had long suffered with mental health issues and was even hospitalised for

psychosis.

During his cross-examination he told the jury the victim had claimed he’d been sexually abused by his grandfather as well as a family friend. He’d also once told a psychiatrist he thought his mother had abused him, but admitted he had been mistaken.

Mr Grey said: “[You said] he was largely responsible for your problems. Do you think he was perhaps an easy person to point the finger at?”

Hamilton-Harvey, 56, of Dean Park Road, Bournemouth, denies the charges.

The trial continues.