A FORMER chairman of Ilkley Parish Council has gone on trial accused of chatting to boys on the internet with a view to meeting them for sexual activity.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court was told that Heathcliffe Bowen, 50, faces charges linked to a “series of sexual offences” alleged to have taken place from 2013 to 2015.

Bowen, of Woodlands Rise, Ilkley, denies a range of offences including intentionally arranging or facilitating sexual activity with a child, attempting to cause or incite a boy to engage in sexual activity, and distributing indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Christopher Rose told the court that Bowen’s alleged offending arose from online conversations he had engaged in.

He said some of the allegations involved attempting to engage “young teenage men” to engage in sexual activity, including “meeting men for sex.”

He told the jury that police had identified one of the people Bowen had communicated with as a 15 year-old boy.

Mr Rose said: “The conversations make it obvious that they were regularly meeting up for sex, for which sometimes the defendant paid.”

The jury heard that other people involved in the conversations had not been identified, but Mr Rose said: “It was obvious that the defendant thought he was talking to children.”

The court was told that Bowen felt his interactions online were “completely devoid of reality” and “complete fantasy”, stating he never intended any meetings to happen.

Mr Rose said that Bowen accepted sending images to others, but stated they were not of children.

He said: “The prosecution say that when you see the pictures, they plainly are”, adding that the content was “highly sexually explicit.”

A previous hearing in the case was told that Bowen, a private tutor, was alleged to have communicated with youngsters on Skype in a bid to arrange to see them at hotels.

The defendant, who is a military historian, served on Ilkley Parish Council for 18 years, and was its chairman three times until his retirement in March 2016.