AN alleged victim of sexual abuse-accused Greenock man Andrew Ward has told a jury how he still feels 'frozen' nearly 38 years after the claimed offences are said to have begun.

The man — now aged 49 — became emotional on a number of occasions during a full day of testimony at the sheriff court and declared: "I don't feel that I've ever got closure."

It is alleged that Ward preyed on him — and two other boys — in his capacity as a helper at a local Christian organisation between August 1984 and December 1994.

The witness told the court that he had already been sexually abused by an uncle when he was aged nine, and encountered Ward at Barnard's Court Mission Church in Greenock when he was 11.

The oncology nurse and divorced father-of-two claims Ward, 52, molested and performed sex acts on him there and at the Netherhall Christian Retreat in Largs.

He said: "There were times when Andrew would touch me and I felt really uncomfortable.

"I froze when it happened, as if I couldn't stop it — and I couldn't stop it."

Asked by prosecutor Kavin (corr) Ryan-Hume how he felt during an alleged incident in Largs, the man replied: "Like I always felt — disgusted.

"I still feel that scared feeling and that feeling of being frozen, because I didn't initiate it."

The jury of eight men and seven women heard how the man made a complaint against Ward to the police in 2016.

Following enquiries by detectives he was called in to make a formal statement in 2018.

He said: "I had a good counsellor who got a lot out of me.

"How did that happen, and how did I let that happen?

"The situation was not right and what happened to me was not right."

The man told the court that Ward performed a sex act on him within the home of a couple who were leaders at Barnard's Court Mission.

He said the couple were in their kitchen adjacent to the living room, where he was sitting with Ward, and that the accused man used a cushion as a shield to hide what he was doing to him.

When defence advocate Joseph Barr put it to him under cross examination that this scenario 'stretches credibility' and was 'simply not true', the man said: "It certainly is — I wish it wasn't true."

He said that on another occasion Ward molested him in the back of the mission's minibus after other children had been dropped off at their homes and the only people left onboard the vehicle were the two of them and the driver.

He told the court: "I felt there was always an element of risk with Andrew.

"I couldn't understand why other people never suspected anything."

Asked by fiscal depute Mr Ryan-Hume if he knew the other two alleged victims in the case, either in the past or now, the witness replied: "No."

It emerged during cross examination by advocate Mr Barr that the man sent a Facebook friend request to Ward in 2015 — prior to him contacting the police the following year.

Mr Barr put it to him: "I suggest that after Mr Ward accepted your request you and he communicated with each other in perfectly friendly terms."

The witness told the court that he could not remember this.

Ward is accused of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour against three boys between August 1 1984 and December 28 1994.

He denies four indictment charges against him.

The trial, before Sheriff Michael Higgins, continues.