by Keith Hunt

A jury has retired to consider a verdict in the trial of a sports coach accused of molesting a boy while carrying out an examination to check his development.

Chris Bowman, of Reinden Grove, Downswood, Maidstone, is alleged to have taken the 11-year-old to a room with a doctor’s-style bench in it and asked him about puberty before touching his genitals.

Bowman, who coaches in Medway and Maidstone, later admitted he had broken the code of conduct by being alone with a young athlete but he denied sexual assault on a child under 13 in October last year.

The 48-year-old coach, who mentored Olympic decathlete hopeful Martin Brockman, claimed the boy pulled down his own shorts after telling him he had a problem with his testicles.

“He took his underpants and other layers down and showed me his genital area,” he told Maidstone Crown Court. “I pulled them back up and said: ‘I don’t think your mother would be very happy about that.’

“It was said in a loud voice. I was trying to remain calm. I explained all we needed to measure his development was to measure his height once a month.”

The boy claimed Bowman pulled down his shorts, stared at his genitals and touched him. He added that the coach told him not to tell his parents.

The jury of seven men and five women retired on Friday and were sent home until Monday.