Teen sexually assaulted by cadet leader, jury told

An Army Cadets instructor accused of sexually assaulting a teenager and asking him for nude photos told the boy "there's a bit of gay in everyone", a court has heard.

Rylan Ray, who was a detachment commander for the youth organisation in Peterborough, is on trial accused of 25 sexual offences, many of them involving children.

The 26-year-old, of Westgate in the city, denies the charges.

A jury at Ipswich Crown Court has been told Ray touched the boy's genitalia with his foot, sent him a photo of his own penis, and encouraged him to return similar images.

"It didn't happen, did it?" said Ray's barrister Rhodri James, questioning the boy about the alleged sexual assault.

The boy responded: "He did."

A statement from his mum, read to the jury by prosecutor Lidia Iancu, said her son had messaged Ray to say he was not gay, to which he replied: "There's a bit of gay in everyone."

Another teenage boy told police, in an interview played to the court, the cadet leader "was a very nice person" at first, but later became "weird".

He claimed Ray had contacted him on the social media app TikTok before moving the conversation to Snapchat, where he would send the boy photos of his chest.

The boy said he received images frequently, but never of any other part of Ray's body.

He told police Ray had speculated about the size of his genitalia and suggested he should show it to him, which the boy refused to do.

The charges against Ray include one count of rape, four of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and three of making indecent images of children.

The offending is said to have happened over a six-year period and involve 11 male complainants, many of whom were cadets.

Ray was elected to Peterborough City Council in 2022 and served as a councillor until May 2026.

The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues.

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