A FORMER NHS manager accused of carrying out a 'weird' sex act in front of a boy told a jury he was washing his penis.

Neil Brown appeared in the witness box at Worcester Crown Court yesterday where he denied committing the act in a communal shower room at Droitwich Leisure Centre.

The10-year-old boy had already given evidence from the witness box, saying the 53-year-old groaned, smiled and raised his eyebrows while performing the 'gross' act 'as if he was shaking a bottle' on December 16, 2017.

Brown of Alcester Road, Feckenham was asked questions by his barrister, Abigail Nixon and cross-examined by prosecutor Ravi Sidhu. Brown had worked in the NHS since 1992, ending up in senior management before he suffered a breakdown in September 2017.

Brown was diagnosed with phimosis (a tightness of the foreskin) last year and a GP had recommended the importance of 'penis hygiene'.

He also said he had suffered erectile dysfunction since his breakdown 'on September 14, 2017 at 7pm', previously telling the police the act alleged would have been 'virtually impossible'.

He was asked questions about photos of himself in a state of arousal sent to another gay man on November 6, 11 and 13, 2017, a little over a month before the alleged incident. Brown said for him to be in this state was 'a rare event' and said of those photos: "That would have been the maximum, I would say, in a month."

Police found a hand-written note at Brown's flat which read: "Me and 10-year-old friend."

Brown told a jury this referred to his first gay experience as a boy of 10 with another friend the same age.

A Kik message exchange between Brown and another adult man made reference to photos of 'young boys'. He said this was 'gay terminology' for men between the ages of 18 and 25, also known as 'twinks', and not a reference to children.

In one of the messages Brown said he had performed a sex act on himself in a swimming pool changing room, adding 'no shame'.

But Brown told the jury he had never done this and it was a scenario to 'turn on' the man he was talking to online in the hope of meeting him. He said he found the idea 'repulsive'.

Brown also carried out internet pornography searches the day after the alleged incident at the leisure centre, including for 'what boys do alone'. Miss Nixon asked if he had been looking for videos of children.

"No, not at all, that would be a disgusting thing to look for" said Brown. The defendant searched for videos about sexual activity in a shower at 12.45am on December 17, 2017.

Brown said: "I wasn't looking specifically for shower-based pornography." When asked, he also denied he had been sexually aroused by what he was said to have done at the leisure centre, laughing as he told the jury: "Not at all."

He had completed 80 lengths of the pool, accepting he had left the water around two minutes after the boy 'to avoid the rush for the showers' and the first thing he did was to clean his private parts which would only have taken him 30 to 40 seconds.

He said he was in the opposite shower to the boy facing the wall and not in the one next to him. Brown accepted he might have been breathing heavily, telling the jury: "I was recovering from my exertions. It might have seemed unusual."

The trial continues.