Sex Education star, 24, in court accused of sex assaults on children

A Sex Education star has appeared in court accused of sexual offences against children, including forcing youngsters to read Shakespeare naked in acting classes. 

Alexander Westwood, 24, who starred in 17 episodes of the hit Netflix show is on trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court. 

He has been charged with 26 different offences against two children, a boy and a girl, who he gave acting lessons to. 

Westwood's alleged crimes, which include rape, stretch back to before he was 10 years old and includes 10 charges of sexual abuse of a girl over a seven-year period. 

The actor denies the charges against him.  

During a hearing on Monday, the court heard Westwood had been giving acting lessons to budding actresses, where he would allegedly force them to recite Shakespeare naked before taking part in nude role play scenes. 

'Alexander Westwood is an actor. He is a supreme manipulator,' prosecutor Andrew Wallace said, reports National World. 

'All these charges have a common theme, of inappropriate touching and predatory behaviour,'

'The 10 indictments concerning a girl, the first charge is on the date of his 10th birthday, that is the date because there is no criminality before this age.'

Mr Wallace told the court one of the alleged victims was a girl who was abused at a home in Walsall, in the West Midlands, with 10 charges relating to her. 

However, the prosecutor reportedly told the jury that if the CPS was to have listed 'every instance' of alleged abuse, 'there would be hundreds of charges'. 

Westwood is accused of using his fame to manipulate youngsters he gave lessons to, where he would 'touch his pupils inappropriately', Mr Wallace told jurors. 

'These are schoolgirls we are talking about, teenagers,' the prosecutor is reported to have said. 'Imagine asking Dame Judy Dench to recite Hamlet naked, she would tell you where to go.'

Westwood faces 26 offences in all, including four counts of rape of a woman over 16.

Other charges include, three counts of causing a female 13 or over to engage in a non-penetrative sexual activity, one count of inciting a boy under 13 to engage in sexual activity, seven counts of sexual assault on a female, three counts of causing a child under 13 to watch a sexual act, three counts of assaulting a girl under 13 by touching, two counts of inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity involving penetration and three counts of assaulting a female 13 and over by penetration.

Westwood, of Albrighton, denies the charges against him. The trial against the actor is expected to last around a month. 

Westwood appeared in 17 episodes of the raunchy Netflix comedy as an 'unaccredited student', according to his IMDb profile. 

As well as starring in Sex Education, Westwood also appeared in 2018 action film, Outlawed.