“I WAS really considering drinking bleach,” said a boy who has accused a 44-year-old man of assaulting him when he was a child.

Daniel Lewis, of Woodfield, Wantage, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with six counts of wilfully assaulting a child and two counts of wilfully ill-treating a child.

A jury heard this week that Lewis is accused of smothering the boy with pillows, pushing him, digging his knuckles into his legs, slapping him, and gripping him around the neck.

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Lewis is also accused of cutting himself in front of the child.

However, he has denied the offences and is now standing trial.

On Thursday (May 9), the jury were played the video-recorded interview with the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when he first reported the alleged incidents.

He said he remembers being a young boy when Lewis allegedly made him eat soap.

“I swore and he told me he was going to wash my mouth out with soap,” he said. “I thought it was a joke.

“I can’t remember if he bought it from a shop but I remember he took me into the bathroom and made me take a bite. I wasn’t allowed to leave until I took a bite.

“It was bad…I don’t know, it was horrible. I just gagged and spat it out, nothing more and nothing less."

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He also told police that there an an occasion where Lewis had allegedly made him sit in a dark cupboard for almost two hours.

“He dragged me, not hard, and told me to sit there,” he said. “He didn’t shove me or anything. After an hour or two, he opened the door and said it’s fine.

“I just sat there. I hated it. I just hallucinated in the dark.”

He said that due to alleged incidents, he had experienced suicidal thoughts.

“I’m not the type of person who considers taking his own life but all this stuff, all those cruel moments, I didn’t want to be there anymore,” he said. “I didn’t want to put up with it. I was really considering drinking bleach.

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“I was picking scabs or purposely grazing my hands. I would pick them until they bleed and I would go through so many clothes and socks as I was using it to [clean the wounds].”

Speaking about the alleged incidents, he added: “It was something that really gets to me, being treated unfairly. It really p***** me off.”

The trial continues.