A MAGISTRATE and teaching assistant for primary schoolchildren with special needs has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing a boy.

The married father-of-two faces four counts of sex abuse over a two year period.

Rodney Fox, a JP in Reading, was arrested in November last year and has now been charged after an investigation by specialist officers from Thames Valley Police.

The 48-year-old former IT worker has been working with youngsters as a learning mentor for children with special educational needs for around eight years until his arrest and at the time of the offences with which he has been charged.

Fox has been accused of two counts of causing or inciting a boy to engage in sexual activity, one count of assaulting a boy under 13 by touching and one count of sexual assault on a male between January 1, 2014 and November 20, 2015.

Now living in Northumberland Avenue, Whitley, it is understood he has left the marital home in Caversham, as a result of the investigation and is due to appear before magistrates in St Albans, next month.

The teaching assistant has worked at several educational establishments across Berkshire and has accompanied children on residential courses at activity centres.

He was appointed a magistrate in April 2007 working at Reading Magistrates' Court. A spokesman for the courts service said Fox was not currently sitting on the bench but was still a magistrate.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "Rodney Fox, aged 48, of Northumberland Avenue, Reading, who is unemployed, was charged on 5 April with one count of causing or inciting a boy under 13 to engage in sexual activity, one count of causing or inciting a boy aged between 13 and 15 to engage in sexual activity, one count of assaulting a boy aged under 13 by touching and one count of sexual assault on a male over 13.

"The charges relate to incidents which took place in Reading and all relate to one victim between 01/01/14 and 20/11/15.

"Fox has been bailed to appear at St Albans Magistrates’ court on 10 May."