A jury in the trial of a former football coach who is accused of sexually assaulting boys has heard the testimony of one of the alleged victims months after he was killed in a car crash.

The jury was told that Billy Seymour, who claimed he was indecently assaulted by the former Southampton FC youth coach Bob Higgins, had died in an accident.

Instead of hearing from Seymour in person as would normally happen, the jury was shown video of him being interviewed by police and being questioned at a previous trial.

Seymour claimed he was indecently assaulted by Higgins between the ages of about 13 to 15 during the early 1980s in the coach’s car, at his home and during a trip to a football tournament in Sweden.

He alleged he was seen as Higgins’s “blue-eyed boy” and when he told the coach he was leaving Southampton, Higgins broke down in tears, got down on his knees and told him: “I love you.”

Billy Seymour as a young man.

The prosecution claims that Higgins, now 66, was a predatory paedophile who used his power as one of the sport’s kingmakers to carry out a 25-year campaign of sexual abuse against boys as young as 11.

Higgins, who also worked at Peterborough United and for the Maltese FA as well as running his own football academy, denies 51 counts of indecent assault against 24 boys between the early 1970s and mid-1990s.

The jury at Bournemouth crown court has been told that the current proceedings are a retrial. On Monday the judge, Peter Crabtree, informed the panel it would be hearing about allegations relating to Seymour.

“He sadly has been killed in a tragic car accident between the end of the last trial and this trial,” the judge said.

In video shown to the court, Seymour described how he was spotted by Southampton FC as a 12-year-old in the early 1980s. Seymour said he was also approached by Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal but opted for Southampton because of Higgins’s charisma.

He said he quickly became one of Higgins’s favourites. “It was quite overpowering how he took a shine to me,” Seymour said. Higgins allegedly gave him gifts including tracksuits and bottles of the same aftershave he wore, and took him to football matches, sometimes getting him a seat in the directors’ box.

A court sketch of Bob Higgins, who denies 51 counts of indecent assault. Photograph: Elizabeth Cook/PA

The jury heard that Higgins allegedly drove Seymour to and from night-time training sessions, played the Whitney Houston song The Greatest Love Of All in the car and told the teenager: “This is the most beautiful song, it reminds me of you so much.” Seymour alleged that Higgins would indecently assault him as he drove.

Higgins invited Seymour to stay at his home and allegedly indecently assaulted him as they watched television on the sofa and in a bedroom. Seymour said the alleged assaults on the sofa seemed to take an “eternity”.

Seymour claimed Higgins also sexually assaulted him while on a trip to Gothenburg in Sweden. “It was clear I was his blue-eyed boy,” Seymour said.

Eventually Seymour told Higgins he was going to leave Southampton to train at the Football Association’s centre of excellence at Lilleshall in Shropshire. “He broke down and started crying and said: ‘Billy, I love you,’” said Seymour. “He got down on his knees. I ran. It was a horrible thing to see.”

The trial continues.