A Catholic teenager in Britain was tied to a wooden cross and hung from a wall by work colleagues, a court has heard.
Four men are on trial at York Crown Court accused of religiously aggravated assaults.
All four deny the charges and three claimed the incidents were part of general workplace banter.
The mock crucifixion was one of several incidents of alleged bullying the teen said he suffered.
The young man, now aged 19, testified in court by video link.
The alleged mock crucifixion incident – which was said to have been filmed by co-workers – involved the teen being tied to a wooden cross and suspended three feet in the air.
This allegedly happened after he refused to hand over his phone.
“At the time I didn’t know what to feel. I felt ashamed, everyone could see what was happening to me. I was embarrassed,” he told the court.
“Afterwards I was thinking they were trying to take the Mickey out of my religion. Otherwise why was there a cross made?”
The victim, who is a churchgoer, told the court that the abuse had started not long after he joined the firm in July, 2014.
Other alleged incidents included one of the accused spraying deodorant towards the teen’s head and lighting it while the teen was asleep in bed.
There was another alleged occasion which involved tying the teenager to a chair and pulling him off the ground by his underpants – leaving him with cuts and bruises to his buttocks.
In another alleged incident, the teenager was pelted with eggs and flour by three of his co-workers while he was in the shower.
One month later, while the workers were staying in Essex, one of the men allegedly struck again while the teen was sleeping.
This time, the teen was left with crosses, phallic symbols and other marks drawn on his body.
The teenager was too ashamed to report the incidents and feared he would be sacked.
The trial started on Monday.
Sources
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