Rock star Brown tells of attack on friend by Talbot

STONE ROSES’ frontman Ian Brown has told a court he has never forgotten the moment when Fred Talbot invited one of his young friends to sleep in his tent on a school camping trip to Scotland.

Mr Brown, 54, was a pupil at a grammar school in Manchester in the 1970s where Talbot taught biology before going on to establish a career as a TV weatherman.

The singer said he went on a school camping trip organised by the teacher in 1977 or 1978 when he was 14 years old.

Talbot, 67, is on trial at Lanark Sheriff Court, accused of indecently assaulting several teenage boys on school trips to Scotland.

He is also accused of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards a boy aged 12 on a trip. Talbot denies the charges against him.

Mr Brown, who told the court he was self-employed as a singer and songwriter, said he had got on with Talbot before the camping trip. He said: “He was possibly one of the only teachers who didn’t stick (cane) me.”

The witness said Talbot would regularly talk about trips during class but would only invite certain people. “Mr Talbot did these trips and he decided who went,” Mr Brown told the court.

“You couldn’t just put your name down and say you were going.”

The witness said he did not know exactly where they had camped on his trip, but between 12 and 20 pupils had left school on a Friday afternoon in a minibus with Talbot when an attack happened on his friend.

Talbot is accused of carrying out the offences involving pupils aged 15 to 17 on trips in Scotland while he was employed as a teacher. He faces eight charges of indecent assault between January 1978 and November 1981 and one of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour in February 1978.