A WOMAN told police that her headteacher husband had forced her to have sex with him in front of a young child, jurors have heard.

Lee Brumby, the former headteacher of Billericay’s Mayflower High School, is standing trial at Basildon Crown Court accused of a string of historic child sexual offences.

Mr Brumby, 63, of Wellands in Witham, is on trial alongside his ex-wife Elaine Brumby, 61, of Kiln Road in Great Wakering.

Prosecutor Wayne Clever said it was the Crown’s case that Mrs Brumby “was complicit in some of her husband’s sexual exploits” and committed some offences of her own.

But when questioned, he said she claimed her husband had “made her do it”.

“It happened on a number of occasions,” said Mr Cleaver.

“It is an offence for an adult to intentionally engage in sexual activity in the presence of a child. In some perverted way, they must have been obtaining some sort of gratification from it.”

Mr Cleaver told jurors yesterday, that to the outside world, Mr Brumby had been “a pillar of respectability” and Mrs Brumby “a dutiful housewife” – but the reality “was quite different”. The offences are all alleged to have occurred while the couple lived in Little Wakering.

Mr Brumby denies two counts of raping a girl under 13, two counts of sexual activity in the presence of a child and one count of indecency with a child.

Mrs Brumby denies four counts of sexual activity in the presence of a child, one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, and one count of sexual assault of an adult man.

The court heard the victim wrote a letter to loved ones, claiming she had been left suffering from “night terrors and flashbacks” on a daily basis. She was interviewed by police in 2020 and again in 2021.

A second complainant, an adult male, told police he was sexually assaulted by Mrs Brumby.

When questioned by police Mr Brumby portrayed himself as “perhaps slightly prudish”, Mr Cleaver said. “He said he had spent his whole life dealing with child safeguarding. He sought to paint a picture that he was a respectable man and entirely beyond reproach.”

The trial continues.