A SCHOOLGIRL has told a court how her teacher touched her inappropriately when she asked for help with her work.
Christopher Hird, 47, is accused of touching girls aged 11 to 16 at South Holderness Technology College in Preston while working there as a chemistry teacher.
Mr Hird, who the court has been told was nicknamed "Mr Perv", is alleged to have stroked their hair and faces and touched their thighs and hips inappropriately.
One girl told a jury at Hull Crown Court how her teacher, head of science at the school, touched her legs, felt her waist and placed his hand on her face in two incidents during a lesson.
She said: "We were messing about and my friend got some pen on my face. Sir came over and said to get some tissue to wipe it off.
"I wet a tissue and was trying to wipe it off and he just took it off me and was wiping my face for a bit. He had his hand on my face and was quite close to my face."
The girl said she told her mum that night as soon as she got home from school.
"We were going to do something about it but we were not sure," the girl said. "I didn't dare ask any questions in class in case anything happened again."
The girl said she had asked the teacher for help another time during a lesson when she became stuck on a question.
"He came over to me and put an arm across me and pointed at my work," she said.
"He was looking at my work then out of the corner of my eye I caught his hand between my legs. He stroked my leg.
"I felt really uneasy. He had his hand on my leg nearly touching my privates. I was shaking."
The girl claimed it lasted ten seconds.
"As he came past me, he had his hands on my hip. He was moving his fingers against me. I was quite shocked. I just felt really uneasy around him."
Under cross-examination, Mr Hird's barrister Mark McKone suggested to the girl she had told her friend a different version of events before embellishing her account.
He said: "Your account started off as an accident and then gradually got more and more serious as the days passed."
However, although she said she had told her friend it was an accident after he did not believe her initial account, she replied: "I told the truth."
Mr Hird, who has been a teacher for 24 years and worked at the school for 12 years, is charged with three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault against three girls.
Mr Hird, of South Cave, denies the charges and the trial continues.
