A kickboxing instructor and former pub doorman from Trowbridge sexually abused more than 20 children as young as eight over two decades, a court in London heard today.

David Prosser, 50, of British Row, is alleged to have lured his young students to homes in Trowbridge and London, where he committed a series of indecent assaults and rapes, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

The married father-of-two is charged with 55 sex offences on 21 children stretching across 20 years, between 1980 and 2000.

Prosecutor Ian McLoughlin said Prosser was a ‘highly manipulative character’ who wormed his way into the trust of children and parents before starting the abuse.

Prosser managed several makeshift fighting clubs in Wiltshire in pubs and halls and three at centres in west London.

One boy, aged between 12 and 13 years old, has claimed he was the subject of abuse while a student at one of the Wiltshire clubs alleged that Prosser bribed him with the offer of a PlayStation in return for sex.

Prosser was arrested at his home in Trowbridge on May, 2, 2008, after a complaint from a man who said he had been abused by him 10 years earlier when Prosser lived in Hanwell, Greater London.

The alleged victim said he was shown pornography and forced to commit sex acts while at Prosser’s home for extra martial arts tuition.

One teenager, who said he had been abused, claimed he fled Prosser’s former home near Ealing Hospital when another man was there asking him for sex.

Many of the boys told police he had plied them with alcohol, cigarettes or even cash.

Mr McLoughlin said: “He would start by flattering a boy in his class. He singled out a boy by saying ‘you are good at kickboxing, but you would be better with some extra tuition'.”

Prosser is also accused of abusing a brother and sister in Trowbridge, which Mr McLoughlin said happened “after being taken in as a friend of the family.”

Prosser is charged with 55 sexual offences against 20 boys and one girl between 1980 and 2000; five rapes, three attempted rapes, 43 indecent assaults, one attempted indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child.

He pleaded guilty to eight counts of indecent assault and not guilty to all other charges put to him when he appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on February 20.

The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, continues.