Stuart Hall Trial: 'Consent Not High On Agenda'

Former broadcaster Stuart Hall has been described as an accomplished sexual predator who set out to groom his young rape victims.

Summing up in Hall's trial, prosecutor Peter Wright QC criticised the defendant's decision not to go into the witness box to give his own account in court.

Mr Wright said Hall was "a man who cares not what they (his alleged victims) feel or whether they are in a position to object or resist ... a man prepared to use any pretext to isolate and then abuse his victims. Little wonder he did not give evidence."

The barrister went on to say the former television presenter was "a man whose pre-occupation is with his own sexual fulfilment at whatever cost to his victims. The consent of his victims was not high up on his agenda in fact it did not even feature."

The defendant shook his head in the dock and mouthed the word "no" as the prosecutor addressed the Preston Crown Court jury.

Hall's barrister Crispin Alyett QC opened his closing speech by saying: "I am going to play my Joker" - a reference to the BBC television programme It's A Knockout, once presented by the defendant.

Mr Alyett told the jury: "Listening to Mr. Wright you might think (Stuart Hall) was on trial for not going into the witness box".

He said: "He was not creeping along corridors to their bedrooms. They either went with him or to him."

The defence barrister concluded by saying that if Stuart Hall had spoken in court: "This drowning man might have asked rhetorically: 'When does prosecution become persecution'."

The judge is expected to begin his summing up on Wednesday.

Stuart Hall denies 15 historical charges of rape and five of indecent assault relating to two girls. He admits one charge of indecent assault.

The trial continues.