THE man accused of setting fire to UCAN after stalking two members of staff has questioned Cheshire Police’s approach to investigating what he called a ‘paedophile ring’ at the school.

Philip Day, 55, has opted to defend himself at his Chester Crown Court trial, rather than employ a legal team, and yesterday put questions to a police detective involved in the case.

Day, from Saltash Close in Runcorn, claims a teacher at the school was guilty of sexual assault against a student.

The court was told that the student initially disclosed during a CAMHS session (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) that she had a memory of an incident on a school trip where she thought her drink may have been spiked and then saw the teacher – who cannot be named for legal reasons – appear at her door.

In a later session, the student said she thought she might have been raped.

She later alleged to her parents – but not to the police – that multiple members of staff had been party to the incident.

She also disclosed to a friend that she had missed her period and ‘passed a blood clot in the bath’ which she thought may have been a miscarriage.

A letter from CAMHS, referring the matter to the police, said that an internal school investigation had been concluded ‘satisfactorily’ and that no further action had been taken against the teacher.

Day is alleged to have stalked the teacher in question and headteacher Cath Green, having conducted his own investigations after perceiving the police hadn’t done enough.

Prosecutors took the jury through a police log, stretching from 2011 to 2017, where the student involved – and a list of others passed on to the police by Day as part of his own investigation – declined to make police reports.

Evidence from a member of Cheshire Police’s Public Protection Unit, which looked into the allegations, held of a number of meetings and phone calls with alleged victims over the space of six years, none of whom elected to make an official complaint of sexual abuse.

One called the allegations ‘complete nonsense and totally untrue’, while another had no recollection of anything ‘inappropriate’.

The student’s clothes from the trip were also handed over to be forensically examined, but several years had passed since the alleged assault took place and the clothes she had been wearing had been thrown away.

In 2017, the student contacted police to say she ‘would never’ be in a position to give a statement, but that she was distressed by the defendant’s Facebook posts – which had named her and detailed the allegations.

In his defence, Day put to DS Richard Langford on the witness stand, that the police investigation and conversations with the student could have been carried out more sensitively, although the officer said all procedures were correctly followed and that alleged victims must be ready and willing to make a report of their own accord.

In the prosecution’s opening statement last week, Day was said to have posted 10 videos on social media regarding his investigative efforts, accusing UCAN and police of harbouring a ‘paedophile ring’ which assaulted pupils of the Shipbrook Road school.

They allege that Day mounted a campaign against the teacher and the school, eventually taking matters into his own hands and causing a fire on February 25, 2018 which destroyed much of the building’s roof.

Mr Day is also facing two charges of stalking, relating to two UCAN staff members, as well as a burglary and arson attack at an Essex home in December 2017.

He was arrested on the day of the UCAN fire, and denies all charges.

The trial is expected to last around four weeks.