A BARBER sexually assaulted a ten-year-old girl after knocking on the window of a Bradford hairdresser’s shop and beckoning her in, a jury heard yesterday.

Mohammed Abid, 49, gave the child a lolly before putting his hand down her trousers and touching her bottom, it is alleged.

Abid, of Dickens Street, West Bowling, Bradford, is on trial denying a charge of sexually assaulting a girl under 13 on Boxing Day, 2014.

Prosecutor Michael Smith told Bradford Crown Court that the child was passing Sabir’s Hairdresser on Whetley Lane on an errand for her mother.

She had been to a nearby DIY shop and was on her way home.

It is alleged that Abid beckoned her into the shop at 1pm, asked her why she was not wearing a coat and wanted to know where she lived.

The girl says he touched her stomach under her top, put his hands down her trousers and then kissed her on the cheek.

The child, who was in the shop for under two minutes, told an older cousin and her own mother what had happened. Her brother confronted Abid and the police were alerted.

When Abid was arrested later that day, he asked the police: “Is it about the girl?” and declined to answer any questions.

The jury was told that when he was again interviewed, in March this year, he told the police the girl had come into the shop.

He had given her a lolly and told her to go home when she approached his desk.

Abid, who is assisted throughout the trial by an Urdu interpreter, said he pushed her out through an inner door but denied touching her in a sexual way.

The girl’s mother told the jury her daughter was very distressed when she came home that afternoon.

“At first she said she was frightened and did not want to say anything about it. She was very upset and looked like she had been crying,” the woman said.

“She said that on her way back, she was passing the barber’s shop and the man had knocked on the window and called her in, and she went inside and he had touched her under her top and on her tummy and put his hand down the back of her pants. She started crying at that point.”

The child’s mother said she herself became tearful and frightened when her daughter told her this.

“I just started shaking and I was really upset,” she told the court.

The woman said her son was angry and took the little girl back to the shop to find out what had happened.

Abid told the jury today that the girl invited herself into the shop after smiling and waving at him.

He said he waved back at her but did not beckon her in.

Abid said he had worked at the shop five days a week for three years, cutting both men and women's hair, but he had never seen the girl before.

"I do not know her, not at all," he said.

Abid said he gave her a lolly from a jar kept for child customers.

"She sat on a chair and started messing with it," he said.

"I asked 'Is there anyone accompanying you?' and she said 'I am on my own'."

When she moved to the shelf where he kept his razors and scissors, he feared she might harm herself.

Abid said he shouted: "Go home. Go home," and pushed her with both hands out of the shop.

He said he never touched her sexually and knew it would be very wrong to do so.

He made no comment when interviewed by the police later that day because his lawyer advised him to say nothing.

The trial continues.