A PENSIONER accused of abusing two girls within months of being freed from jail for child rape told a jury he would not and could not have carried out the alleged crimes.

Convicted paedophile Arthur Bierton said a medical condition he has had since childhood - erectile dysfunction - means it was "totally impossible" to perform the attacks.

Former car valeter Bierton, now 72, of Stockton Road, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, denies a string of sexual allegations said to have happened in the 1980s and 1990s.

The pensioner told Teesside Crown Court he did touch the girls and admitted it at the time - but there was never any penetration.

He denies six charges of indecent assault, two of indecency and three rapes against one girl; and two indecent assault and one count of indecency against the other.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Paul Newcombe, one-time guide dog trainer Bierton denied being "deluded", "a danger to children" and "a cunning paedophile".

He claimed he had never had sex in his life, and his conviction for rape in 1979 was based on a false allegation to which he was advised to plead guilty for a lighter sentence.

Each time Mr Newcombe used the word "paedophile", Mr Bierton issued a forceful "no" and described what he did to the girls - and other earlier victims - as "just touching".

"I have said I'm sorry it did happen, and I'm ashamed it did happen," he said. "I'm not a paedophile. I don't just go out attacking youngsters or anything like that.

"As far as just touching is concerned, which is what I did, I would not say that makes me a paedophile . . . I do not have a problem . . . it is a misunderstanding."

He added: "I have been in prison for something I haven't done in the past, and I have no intentions of going down again for something I have not done."

Mr Newcombe asked him: "Will you not acknowledge that it must be the case you are a cunning paedophile who is trying to trick this jury into you are not that man?"

Bierton denied buying the girls' silence with money and sweets, accused them of lying, and disputed he had only pleaded guilty to the "bare minimum" to con the jury.

The trial continues.