A former worker at a youth detention centre in Goderich has been charged with a sex offence.

Huron County OPP say the 51-year-old man has been charged with one count of sexual exploitation in connection with an incident alleged to have occurred in 1998 at the Bluewater Youth Centre.

Sexual exploitation is a charge laid against anyone accused of touching a young person for a sexual purpose or attempts to get a young person to touch someone else for a sexual purpose. In this case, police say, the charge relates to an alleged attempt to get a young person to touch someone else.

The Bluewater Youth Centre closed in 2012.