A boy aged ten broke down as he told police how he was sexually abused

by a stranger he met in a seafront amusement arcade, a jury heard.

The boy's voice dropped to a whisper and he wiped away tears as he struggled to describe his ordeal last summer.

He said the man told him he had a knife and had threatened to kill him.

The boy said: "He said he was going to kill me.

"He was going to slice me with a knife or strangle me."

The boy's recorded interview with detectives was played to a jury at Lewes Crown Court during the trial of Anthony Valentine, 46.

Valentine is accused of kidnapping and indecently assaulting the child.

The prosecution say the defendant befriended the boy by buying him presents and sweets with the intention of luring him to a place where he could sexually abuse him.

The jury heard how the boy was playing in an amusement arcade in Bognor Regis on July 11 when he went missing in the early evening.

He was found more than eight hours later, at 3am, after a taxi driver alerted police.

The boy said he had started talking to Valentine, who told him his name was Paul, while playing on the game machines.

He said the man found out the boy had recently had a birthday and he offered to buy him a present, a new pair of trousers because he had a hole in the knee of the pair he was wearing.

They visited several other arcades along the seafront before setting off to the railway station where they caught a train to Barnham.

From the station they walked almost four miles into the countryside where the boy alleges he was sexually assaulted in a copse beside a stream, near Lidsey.

The boy, wearing a baseball cap, sweat shirt and jeans, looked embarrassed as he was persuaded by a detective to explain what happened.

The boy said: "We went out on a footpath. It was all muddy.

"He said he wanted to rest. He stopped and then he sexually abused me."

The boy said afterwards they walked back to Barnham station and the man gave him £20 to get a taxi home.

During cross-examination by live video link, the boy admitted he told Valentine he wanted him to meet his mother.

The boy said: "I was just saying that so he would get me home."

Valentine, of Boltro Road, Haywards Heath, is accused of kidnap, two offences of child abduction, two offences of indecent assault and an offence of indecency with a child.

He denies all the charges against him.

The trial continues.