LONDON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- A 101-year-old man in Britain, believed to be the oldest defendant in the country's legal history, has stood trial for a string of child sex abuse charges, local media reported on Monday.
Ralph Clarke, a Birmingham resident, denies all 31 offences he was accused of committing between 1974 and 1983 against three children, including two boys and a girl, and one of them was only seven, according to a BBC report.
Two of the alleged victims walked into a police station in August last year to make a complaint against Clarke, revealing "a history of a catalogue of serious sexual abuse," a prosecutor told jurors at the start of the trial.
The former lorry driver was granted unconditional bail after a brief hearing in May. Due to his age and health condition, the court will only hear evidence for four hours per day during his two-week trial.
But the prosecutor insisted that age was no barrier to a defendant being tried, "as long as the trial is fair and the evidence is clear."
