A FORMER Plymouth headteacher has denied 28 indecent assaults on children, some of them former pupils.

Court security staff and police ensured order among a packed public gallery as Neil Dyer appeared yesterday at Plymouth Crown Court.

Dyer, aged 70 and on bail, was given special permission by Judge Paul Darlow to enter Court 4 via the cells, accompanied by dock officers.

He left by the same route, avoiding contact with the public.

Judge Darlow thanked people in the public gallery for their restraint during the emotion-charged hearing.

Dyer is accused of indecently assaulting children who attended Widey Court Primary School in Crownhill between 1975 and 1983, and other children under 16 in Torpoint and Swindon in the 1980s and in 1992.

The Crown Prosecution Service alleges assaults on 12 boys and one girl, with one boy allegedly assaulted on five separate occasions.

Dyer, of Stokes Lane, the Barbican, who was dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, dark blue tie, answered firmly: "Not guilty" to each of the 28 charges.

He is to face a trial on March 14 next year.

It is expected to last 15 days and will be conducted either by Judge Darlow, resident Judge Francis Gilbert QC or a visiting High Court judge.

Dyer, who used to be known as Geoffrey Burley, was released on unconditional bail by Judge Darlow.

As Burley, he started teaching in 1960 and joined Widey Court in 1971.

He became the school's deputy head teacher and the head teacher in 1983.

Dyer resigned his post in November 1993.

Nobody currently at the school was involved in the police inquiry.