A five-year-old hugged his teddy bear as he gave evidence in a sex case at Canterbury Crown Court.

The boy, wearing a blue hoody, sat in a special room next to an intermediary – a language specialist – and a member of the witness support team.

Judge Heather Norton and two barristers went to meet the child just minutes before he gave his ‘live’ evidence via a special CCTV link to the courtroom.

As a result the judge and lawyers took off their robes and wigs after saying he didn’t like them wearing them.

Judge Norton later told the jury that the witness had a “particular hatred of wigs and doesn’t like us having them”.

In a video made by police, the child alleged that he was sexually assaulted by Sam Strange of Mead Road, Folkestone.

The 23-year-old has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault, which were alleged to have happened when the child was four years old.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall said the claims were repeated when the child had pointed to a doll and said he had been assaulted by Strange.

After the video with the allegations was played to the jury, the child was asked questions by Stephen Earnshaw,the barrister representing Strange.

The judge told the jury: “Mr Earnshaw won’t be asking many questions and among the things he won’t be asking is putting to the child that he is lying or anything like that which he might ask an adult witness.

“That is not because he has nothing to ask, because there is probably lots of things he would want to ask, but current thinking that when the issue is whether this happened or not it would be wrong to challenge a child witness.”

The judge then asked the child his age and then Mr Earnshaw asked just five questions and received mainly one word answers.

The witness was then thanked by the judge and told that he could now go home.

The trial continues.