TV star Phillip Schofield said “f***, stop” to his brother when told about a sex act he carried out with a teenage boy, a court has heard.
In a written statement, the This Morning presenter, 60, said his sibling “made it sound like a one-off” and the celebrity told him “it must never happen again”.
The two spoke face to face on 12 September 2021 after Timothy Schofield had driven to his famous brother’s London home from Bath after being in an “extreme state of agitation” and “was on the verge of killing himself”, jurors heard.
The 54-year-old defendant is accused of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019, which are alleged to have started when the alleged victim was a teenager. The most serious charge involved a sex act with the child.
Timothy Schofield, a civilian police worker, “does not dispute” that he and the complainant watched pornography together, but disputes “when it started”, according to Schofield’s lawyer Peter Binder.
In his statement to Exeter Crown Court, Phillip Schofield said he was washing up when his brother stood behind him and said, “you are going to hate me for what I am about to say”.
“I said there was nothing he could say that would make me hate him. Then he said that he and [the boy] had time together and that last year they had watched porn… and [masturbated]”.
“I turned and said, ‘What did you just say?’ He said it was last year and we were alone together.
“Tim said it was just this once. I told him it should never happen again.
“He then started to tell me about [the boy’s] body.
“I said, ‘F***, stop’. I shouted at Tim that he had to stop. I didn’t want to know any of the details but he made it sound like a one-off.
“I said, ‘I don’t want you to tell me anymore’. I said, ‘You’ve got to stop, just never do it again. Regardless how that happened it must never happen again’.
“Tim would say it was just ‘[boy] time’.
“I said, ‘What the hell is [boy] time?'”
‘Timothy Schofield’s head was in a mess’
In the statement, the TV host said that prior to his sibling driving over to his home, the defendant had called the star in an agitated state.
Mr Schofield said: “Tim was in an extreme state of agitation, and he said that he was on the verge of killing himself. He said his head was in a mess.”
When he arrived at Mr Schofield’s house a couple of hours later, the defendant was “as angry as I have ever seen him”, the court heard.
During the face-to-face conversation, Mr Schofield said he urged his brother to see his GP and get counselling.
The unnamed complainant yesterday told the trial he was around 13 when Schofield’s alleged offending started.
But the accused’s lawyer Peter Binder said: “It is his [Schofield’s] case that you have exaggerated the length of time that this practice went on for, that it only lasted 18 months or so from when you were 16 to roughly 17 and a half and that is right, is it not?”
The complainant said the lawyer’s claim was “wrong”.
Schofield denies three counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity, three of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, three of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two of sexual activity with a child.
The defendant was working for Avon and Somerset Police as an IT technician when the alleged attacks took place.
The trial continues.
