A FORMER Saints youth coach has appeared in court charged with more than 60 child sex offences.

Bob Higgins faces 65 counts of indecent assaults against 23 teenage boys, and a further two counts of attempting to indecently assault one of them between 1979 and 1983.

All the alleged offences are said to have taken place over a 26 year period between 1970 and 1996.

Higgins, 64, today arrived at Winchester Crown Court, Hants, wearing a black woolly hat covering his eyes - revealing only his grey moustache - and only spoke in court to confirm his name.

He was due to enter a plea today but the court heard the prosecution have not been able to arrange all the necessary paperwork for an indictment to be put to him.

At an earlier hearing at Southampton Magistrates Court, he indicated he would deny all the charges against him.

Prosecutor Kerry Maylin said: "This has been a lengthy case investigation which falls outside of the norm for one of its kind.

"There are 23 alleged victims which have followed a long case investigation."

Judge Keith Cutler, adjourning the hearing until early November, said: "Mr Higgins, I'm adjourning your case, you remain on bail, please keep in touch with your legal team.

"This case will have a plea and trial preparation hearing for a date to be fixed by the courts office.

"It is likely to be in November. It will be a lengthy hearing to get through the charges and I'm pencilling in a trial date to begin in early April."

Higgins, from Southampton, was part of the youth system at Southampton FC in the 1980s and was youth team manager at Peterborough United from May 1995 to April 1996.

He was still working in football, with adults at Fleet Town, when the police investigation into his actions first started last year.

Higgins will appear at Winchester Crown Court for the plea hearing in November and is due to stand trial for six to eight weeks. Higgins has always strenuously denied all allegations made against him.