A GYM instructor tried to hypnotise a teenage boy so he could abuse him, a court has heard.

Paul Schofield, who was a head coach at Bolton Metro Olympic Gymnastics Club in Farnworth, is accused of abusing the boy in the mid 1990s at his former home, when he was aged 14 or 15.

The complainant alleges Schofield, aged 47, of Railway View, Hednesford, Staffordshire, tried to hypnotise him to engage in sexual activity.

During a police interview Schofield admitted he learned to hypnotise people after buying a book and said he used it as a "party trick", but only when there were witnesses around.

He said: “There are only certain types if people you can hypnotise.

“It's people with discipline. I wouldn’t hypnotise somebody like him (the complainant). It would be a waste of my time. It wouldn’t work.”

Schofield told officers he had hypnotised a parent of a child at the club, a martial arts instructor.

The man started to yodel his daughter’s name after being hypnotised, he said.

He said he used his “talent” to help a ease the back pain of another parent and would have people “running around like lunatics” after hypnotising people at fundraising events.

He added: “The complainant has seen the hypnosis happen but I could have sat there all day and it wouldn’t have happened to him.”

The boy, who cannot be raised for legal reasons, attended the club as a teenager and told police about the abuse after considering setting up his own club in 2011. He is now 32.

Schofield contacted police after learning they had been trying to contact him about the allegations, the jury of nine men and three women at Bolton Crown Court heard yesterday.

Schofield told police he had been out of the area for nearly 10 years but he returned to the town because his partner’s mother died, which was at about the same time as the allegations came to light.

He said: “I’m thinking has he seen me with my flashy new iPhone or Rolex watch and thought I should have that.”

Schofield denies indecent assault and gross indecency. The case continues.