‘Fred Talbot gave us masturbation practice as homework’, former pupil Ian Brown tells court

TV weatherman Fred Talbot gave masturbation practice as homework, former pupil and Stone Roses singer Ian Brown told a court today.

Brown, 51, was taught biology by Talbot, who worked as a teacher before his TV career took off, and told the jury the defendant showed his class a gay porn film in school.

Talbot, 65, denies 10 offences of indecent assault on five boys while working as a teacher between the late 1960s and the early 1980s and is on trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester.

Today Brown, lead singer of Manchester band the Stone Roses, told the court he was a pupil of Talbot at Altrincham Grammar School from 1974 to 1979.

Wearing trainers, jeans and an open-necked shirt, Brown said in the 1970s the all-boys grammar school was a violent place - but Talbot was one of the few teachers who did not physically hurt pupils.

Mr Brown said he remembered in particular two or three biology lessons given by Talbot when he was an 11-year-old boy.

The witness said: Very early at school, I would not have been there a long time, Mr Talbot asked all the class if any of us had ever masturbated.

We were 11 years old at the time.

He went on to explain how to masturbate, how you should masturbate and the following lesson he asked who had masturbated.

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'Fred Talbot gave us masturbation practice as homework', former pupil Ian Brown tells court