A teacher accused of historic sex abuse relating to pupils at two Suffolk schools has told a court he never sexually abused pupils at any time during his career.

Giving evidence during his trial at Ipswich Crown Court today Simon Warr, who was a teacher at the former St George’s School, at Great Finborough and at the Royal Hospital School at Holbrook, denied he had “ habitually lingered around the shower area to watch naked boys.”

He also denied being present when Derek Slade, a former headmaster at St George’s, had beaten a boy’s naked bottom with a bat and denied he had beaten the boy with the bat as well.

Warr said that if he had been present when Slade told a boy to remove his pants for a beating he would have reported him to the school’s bursar.

Warr told the court that he had been frequently caned when he was a child and as a teacher he hadn’t felt it was necessary to cane children.

He said the only time he had caned anyone was when he caned TV presenter Adrian Chiles as a joke during an appearance on The One Show.

Warr, 61, of Hounslow, has denied three offences of committing an act of gross indecency towards a child between 1980-1983 and four offences of indecent assault between 1981-1993.

The court has heard the case arose out of another investigation involving Derek Slade, who was convicted in 2010 of 32 offences of physical and sexual assaults on pupils between 1978-1983.

Andrew Thompson, prosecuting, has alleged that Warr made pupils at both schools feel uncomfortable by “staring” at them while they were having showers after PE lessons.

He had allegedly made pupils bend over in the shower and part the cheeks of their buttocks in front of him on the premise of checking they were clean and had allegedly touched one of the boy’s naked buttocks and genitals.

Mr Thompson also alleged that Warr had watched Slade beat a boy’s naked bottom with a bat and had then taken hold of the bat and hit the boy with it himself.

The court has heard that in addition to being a teacher Warr had achieved some minor celebrity in the local and national press and had made TV and radio appearances.

The court heard that after Warr’s arrest in December 2012 he denied the allegations and described them as “ rubbish and nonsense.”

Giving evidence from the witness box today Warr admitted he had a conviction for theft dating back to 1975 when he and some friends had left a shop without paying for some cheese and coffee valued at under a £1.

The trial continues.