A YOUNG girl has told how she was ‘really scared’ that a teacher ‘would do something worse’ after he touched her bottom three times while needlessly pulling up her tights after she had hurt herself.

The alleged victim told Teesside Crown Court how Johnathan Clayton held her bottom for a couple of seconds at a time after he checked the knee she had hurt while playing at school.

Giving her evidence via a pre-recorded police interview, the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Clayton took her into an art room where there was no CCTV and asked her to pull down her tights so he could check her injured knee.

It was after she had pulled them back up that the alleged sexual assault took place.

She said: “He pulled my tights up a couple of times and then he slowly put his hands on my bottom for two seconds and then took his hands off and then he did it again two more times.”

When specially trained police officers asked her how this made her feel, she replied: “I was really shocked after it happened, and I didn’t know what to do.”

The officer asked her how she felt about going back to school following the Easter holidays. She replied: “I was still shocked and uncomfortable and a bit scared that he would do something worse.”

The witness was asked how she felt about Clayton when he first joined the school.

She said: "At first I thought he was a kind teacher but then I realised it wasn't right what he was doing. I still feel uncomfortable when I think about it."

The court was told he is alleged to have 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 it can't be named 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.

Earlier in the trial the jury heard how the defendant was accused of touching a young girl's genitals when he was helping her to get dressed after a sports session at the school.

Another alleged victim started to wear shorts under her skirt because she felt 'uncomfortable' with the behaviour of a supply teacher.

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

"I was really scared that something might happen to me," she said. "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 trial continues.