The trial of a man accused of indecent assault has continued, with the court hearing tapes of police interviews with the defendant, in which he described the allegations as 'terrible lies'.

He told officers the claims were a conspiracy on the part of the complainant and a number of others, to bring him down and ruin his life.

At the end of this morning's session Acting Deemster Peter Birkett revealed one of the counts of indecent assault had been dropped, reducing the number of charges to twelve.

He said this was because the nature of that specific charge didn't tally with when the complainant said the relevant type of abuse had started.

The trial is scheduled to resume this afternoon with the defendant taking the stand as the defence case gets under way.

(Picture: Douglas Courthouse, where the trial is taking place).