A psychiatrist said a teenager accused of killing a vicar and chopping up his body gave a classic account of sexual abuse.

Professor Nigel Eastman described how Christopher Hunnisett, 26, gave a story consistent with those given by children who had been abused.

Hunnisett claimed he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the Rev Ronald Glazebrook when he was 17.

He told a jury the vicar sexually assaulted him while he was taking a bath in April 2001.

He claims he responded by punching Mr Glazebrook as hard as he could on the head as he sat on the edge of the bath.

He said the vicar fell into the bath on top of him and drowned as he scrambled out and fled to his bedroom at the house they shared in Dane Road, St Leonards.

Hunnisett was found guilty of murdering the 81-year-old priest after a trial in 2002.

However the conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered by the Court of Appeal earlier this year.

Prof Eastman told a jury at Lewes Crown Court that Hunnisett's allegations of sex abuse emerged when he visited him in prison before the appeal.

He said the teenager reluctantly told him about the alleged abuse during a four hour interview in prison.

Prof Eastman said: “He described three occasions on which he had allegedly been abused by the vicar.

“He said it was revolting and he tried to pretend that it did not happen. He said he blamed himself and wanted to die.

“This is absolutely characteristic of the story children give of an episode of abuse.

“If he had wanted to make it up he would have had to have looked it up in a text book to do so.”

On Friday a retired banker told the jury that the vicar had sexually abused him in the 1940s.

The man, now in his 70s, was a server at a London church where Mr Glazebrook was curate.

He said the priest hired a boat and abused him during a trip on the River Thames.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the alleged abuse had blighted his life and he can no longer trust men.

Hunnisett claims an identical episode happened with him on a riverboat trip on the Thames when he was 17.

Mrs Christine Baxter had earlier told the jury that Hunnisett told her a week before the vicar's death that he was being abused by him.

Hunnisett, formerly of Coventry Road, St Leonards, denies murder.

The trial continues.