Pilot charged with sexually assaulting boy
A British Airways pilot has been charged with almost 20 counts of sexual assault on a young boy.
Captain Bartle Frere, 50, was arrested at his home in the small Dorset village of Shipton Gorge, near Bridport, in November last year.
Dorset Police said Frere, who was born in Surrey, appeared at Bournemouth Magistrates Court on 1 February, and at the local crown court on Friday.
A spokesman told the Daily Mail: "50-year-old Bartle Frere from Bridport has been charged with child sex offences... safeguarding measures have been put in place to protect victims."
The paper adds that Frere is charged with four indecent assaults, one attempted indecent assault, one offence of gross indecency, and three offences of buggery, all on a boy under 16 between 2001 and 2003.
He is also accused of the possession of six indecent images of children and making four indecent images of children.
A BA spokesman told the Daily Mail: "He is no longer an employee of the company. We do not discuss confidential matters between the company and employees or ex-employees."
The news comes just months after another BA pilot, Simon Wood, 54, killed himself days after he was charged with indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl.
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