A woman has told a court of the moment her son told her he had been sexually abused as a child.

Damien Riley is on trial facing fourteen charges relating to allegations said to have taken place in south Oldham between 1981 and 1987.

The 55-year-old is accused of 13 charges of indecent assault and a further one of gross indecency against four men who were young boys at the time.

Earlier in the week the court heard from the first complainant, who said Riley was the “toughest teenager in the neighbourhood” and the abuse began when he pulled him into his bedroom and performed a sexual activity on him.

He recalled two other specific incidents but said the conduct went on intermittently during this period.

And the court heard from his mother, who revealed the moment he told her about his allegations.

She said she could date it as happening in 1994 because of the age of a younger child.

The woman said the pair were on the bus and her son was upset but would not say what was the matter.

The woman said after they got off: “He started to walk away.

“I remember I had hold of his hand.

“I said ‘you have got to tell me.’

“He just blurted it out.

“He said ‘Damien Riley abused me.’

“I was stunned, I wasn’t even sure I had taken it in right or heard it right.

“‘I said ‘what are you saying?'

“He said it again.

“‘I said ‘how, what, when?’”

“‘He said ‘when I was a lot younger.’

“‘I said ‘how much younger’ and he said ‘probably about five.’”

Prosecutor Mark Monaghan asked her: “Were you able to find out what kind of abuse he was talking about?”

The woman said her son had said: “He raped me and sodomised me.”

She was later asked if her son had said why he did not tell her before.

She said: “‘He said ‘how could I tell you, you might not believe me.’”

The woman said she had said she was hurt at that suggestion and added her son had said Riley had “kept threatening to tell people” that he was gay.

She also said he threatened to deny it if his parents took the matter further.

Riley, of Ewood in Bardsley, Oldham, denies all the charges before him.

The trial, before judge Angela Nield, continues.