A police officer accused of indecently assaulting a young mother in a police van insisted in court today he had "never touched her".

Pc Andrew Shearer, 33, said the only time he came into physical contact with the 21-year-old woman was when she bumped into him as she stepped out of the van.

The divorced father-of-two, from Stockton-on-Tees, denied running his hand up the woman's thighs and groping her between the legs in August last year.

Giving evidence on the third day of his trial at Leeds Crown Court, Shearer said: "I never touched her at all.

"The only contact that happened between me and the girl was when she stepped out of the vehicle and she stepped into me."

The Middlesbrough officer, who has been suspended from duty since the alleged incident, said he had been standing with one foot on the step of the van's side door entrance taking notes while the woman was leaning into the vehicle in front of him.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared to be having a conversation with her teenage friend and another officer, Pc Richard Bailey, when she suddenly backed out of the van, Shearer said.

"She was stepping into me so I started to step back as well. She stepped on my foot and immediately turned right and walked away," he added.

The jury heard earlier that the woman and her friend had been walking in a park in Hemlington, Middlesbrough, in the early hours of the morning when they were approached by two policemen investigating a reported burglary.

They climbed into the police van to have their details checked and started joking with the officers. Shearer had even tried on the woman's white Kangol flat cap while she put on a peaked cap belonging to Pc Bailey, the court was told.

But as she gave Pc Bailey directions to get out of the park, she felt Shearer's hands moving up her thighs and touching her between the legs, it was alleged.

The court heard she then grabbed her friend and fled while Shearer shouted after her, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was only joking. It was an accident, come back!'

Prosecutor John Aitken told Shearer he had deliberately prolonged questioning the woman and her friend because he was "trying to chat her up".

"You knew perfectly well you were flirting with her and that was what eventually led you to lose control and touch the lady."

Summing up the evidence to the jury, Mr Aitken said the officer's actions had been "a monumentally stupid thing to do" but he had thought he could "get away with it".