A YOUNG girl started to wear shorts under her skirt because she felt 'uncomfortable' with the behaviour of a supply teacher, a court heard.

One of Johnathan Clayton's alleged victims told Teesside Crown Court that she changed her habits because of the "weird" teacher's unwanted attentions.

She said that he would speak to ten to 11-year-old pupils in a baby voice and in one case picked a girl up and put her on his lap, cradling her like a baby.

The pupil told police in a recorded interview played to the court that she "felt disgusting" when it was explained to her what Clayton had been doing.

She told a specially trained officer that Clayton had touched her thigh as she stood at his desk while her whole class was in the room.

She said: "I started wearing shorts under my skirt, the whole situation made me feel uncomfortable."

She said that Clayton would hug her and massage her neck, doing so once after making her stay in during break for talking in class.

He is also accused of touching her bottom

Initially the girl didn't mention what had been happening to her parents and was asked why.

She said: "I was really scared that something might happen to me. He was a really nice teacher, apart from all that he was quite nice. But now I understand it all I feel a bit disgusting."

She said that when he was addressing girls directly rather than as part of the class Clayton would use his "baby voice".

The girl said: "Another girl was upset and Mr Clayton went up to her. He picked her up and she sat on his lap and he rocked her side to side and he said in his baby voice 'you will be alright'. It was really really weird."

Earlier in the trial, another alleged young victim told the jury how the supply teacher had touched her private parts when he was helping her to get dressed after a sporting activity.

  • Newton Aycliffe man who sold drugs in Darlington's Inside Out was spotted by door staff

The court was told he carried out the assaults over a six-week period in 2019 on six girls aged between seven and 11 – the alleged offences are involved children from a school away from the Stockton area but can't be identified for risk of identifying any of the alleged victims.

Clayton, of Carlton, Stockton, faces 13 charges of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 and denies all.

The trial continues.