A Scout master persuaded four members of his troop to parade naked down the aisle of a church carrying flags, a court heard.

Neil Porter watched from a balcony at the Methodist Church in Maidstone as he directed them, a jury was told.

He also performed a sex act on himself during a camping trip as he told a boy to read out loud from a pornographic magazine, it was alleged.

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly said on another occasion Porter, a married self-employed plumber, told the boy to photocopy his private parts.

Porter, of Cedar Drive, Barming, denies three charges of indecency with a child involving one boy and dating back more than 23 years.

Mr Connolly said Porter, now 46, was one of the leaders at the Methodist Scout group in Union Street, in the early 1990s.

The first offence happened, he said, on a camping trip in Kent. They were all in sleeping bags when Porter instructed the boy to read out a story from a pornographic magazine, Mr Connolly told Maidstone Crown Court.

He remembered struggling with a word he had not heard before and Porter told him how to pronounce it. The boy could tell Porter was performing a sex act in his sleeping bag.

Mr Connolly said the next incident was when Scouts stayed overnight at the community hall attached to the church. Once a month they would take part in a parade down the aisle with flags.

“Mr Porter got four of the Scouts to parody those parades by getting them to walk down the aisle with flags, doing so naked,” said Mr Connolly.

“He remembers Mr Porter being on the balcony looking down. He was directing it from there.”

There was another occasion, the court heard, when Porter put a pornographic video on and encouraged Scouts to perform a sex act while watching it.

Mr Connolly said Porter told the boy to photocopy his private parts.

“He remembers standing on tiptoe to lean over the photocopier,” he said. “After a copy was taken Mr Porter asked for it.”

The prosecutor said the alleged victim reported the matters two years ago. He did so because he was sent on a course covering sexual abuse. Police tracked down another man who was a Scout at the same time, who provided support for some of the allegations.

The jury has retired to consider its verdict.