A FORMER school bursar won’t stand trial for the alleged rape and sexual abuse of two teenage girls some 45 years ago because a court heard he is too ill.

But the case against former Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls finance chief Graham Score, aged 88, will proceed on a rare ‘trial of the facts’ basis.

Cardiff Crown Court was told that Score, now of Preston Road, Yeovil, Somerset, was unfit to appear in court, which was accepted by the judge.

The married father-of-two had previously denied 14 counts of indecent assault of a girl under 16 and four charges of rape of a girl under 16.

Instead, a jury will decide if he attacked the two teenagers in the mid-1970s on a presentation of the facts basis.

The court was told that only one of the alleged victims, now in her 60s, is still alive

When a court determines someone is unfit to stand trial, criminal proceedings cannot proceed.

But prosecutors can apply to have the matter heard as a "trial of the facts”, which takes the place of a criminal trial and determines whether the accused committed the alleged acts.

It cannot result in a conviction, but if the court is not satisfied that the accused committed the offences, then they are acquitted.

Score ran the bursars office at Monmouth School for Girls from 1974 to 1997.

The trial was originally expected to take up to three weeks.