A COURT has heard accusations that there is ‘something seriously wrong with schools and teachers in Northwich’ and that police in the town are covering up child sexual abuse.

Philip Day, 55, of Saltash Close in Runcorn is currently on trial at Chester Crown Court for arson at the former University of Chester Academy Northwich in Rudheath, stalking of two Northwich teachers, and burglary and arson at a house in Essex.

Day appeared voluntarily for questioning at Northwich Police Station on February 22 last year, three days before he is alleged to have set fire to the Northwich school.

The jury at Chester Crown Court was played the recording of the interview, in which officers questioned Day about a series of nine videos which he recorded and posted to Facebook. The videos are recorded at various locations around Northwich, including outside UCAN and The County High School Leftwich, and show Day making allegations of sexual abuse.

He told DS Rob Astbury and DS John Lyons at the beginning of his two-hour-and-42-minute-long interview that he had launched his campaign against the school and kept it up for eight years prior to 2018 due to his belief that one teacher at the school had raped a pupil.

He told police in his interview: “The police aren’t protecting the children in that school. Nobody was doing anything about the abuse at that school, so I had to do something about the fact that it was being covered up.”

Speaking of a separate incident to the alleged rape, but regarding the same teacher, he added: “I know that a girl in school kicked him because he had asked her to touch her friend inappropriately. Her parents were called in and nothing more was done about it. So that was another thing that motivated me over the past eight years.

“Another girl told me about what happens at the school. She told me that when that classroom door closes he does whatever he wants. He grooms them.

“It’s all been put to Cheshire Police. So the police officers that covered up the rape, that same department shut down all the other information that I got passed on, shut down all the other victims that contacted me.”

After being asked about one video in which he is standing outside County High School Leftwich, Day spoke of an incident which was reported in the press in 2000, in which a senior teacher at the Leftwich school had fled the country with a 15-year-old pupil.

He said: “I had discovered that another teacher in town had taken a 15-year-old girl to France and Germany. What am I supposed to think? I’m supposed to think that there’s something seriously wrong with the schools in Northwich and with the teachers and with the police.

“Obviously not every teacher is a paedophile. So when I’m talking about it being a paedophile’s playground, that can refer to just one person.

“Children have come to me and still come to me to say that if anyone says anything about that teacher they will be permanently excluded from the school. The children are saying to me ‘thanks because you are our voice, you are the only one who’s standing up for us, you’re the only one who’s speaking for us’.”

One of the videos was recorded after turning up at an open evening in September 2017 at UCAN and demanding to speak to head teacher Cath Green. The school was put in lockdown due to Day’s actions.

DS Astbury went on to tell Day that his actions had caused distress to children at the school, in particular one child whose mum had spoken to the police.

DS Astbury said: “She said he’s scared to go back to school, and she’s saying about the open evening. He turned up at the school and as a result of your actions the school went to lockdown securing premises, which meant locking in students, parents and teachers to protect themselves, because they feared what you might do.

“She’s saying she’s worried for her son safety-wise in school, she’s worried what you might do or what you’re capable of.

“This is from your demeanour on your videos, from you attending at the school regularly, from you going to open evenings and open mornings when you know you won’t be welcome and from what you post on Facebook.”

After further questioning the interview was cut short after Day became irate, shouting and banging on the desk, with DS Astbury describing him as becoming aggressive.

Day denies all charges. The trial continues.