A MAN accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in the back of his car told a jury she had tried to kiss him.

Sajaad Khan, 26, said the incident happened when he got into the back of the car to retrieve his phone, which had slipped down the side of his seat.

Khan denies three charges of sexual assault and one of false imprisonment.

He told Bradford Crown Court: “I leaned down to get the phone.

“The girl was beside me.

“I went to remove my phone and she tried to kiss me.

“I moved away.

“I was a bit shocked.”

He said the girl then tried to kiss his co-accused, Jubayel Ali, also 26.

Ali denies one charge of sexual assault and one of false imprisonment.

Khan said: “I was thinking ‘what’s going on, all of a sudden she was behaving a bit weird.’”

Questioned by his barrister, Kitty Colley, Khan told the jury he did not have, or want to have, any sexual contact with the girl.

He denied biting her on the neck and chest, getting her to touch him indecently, or forcing her to do anything at all.

The court has been told the men found the girl while they were driving in the Keighley area.

She was upset after she was taken by taxi to meet her boyfriend but he had failed to turn up.

It is claimed the men bought vodka and one of the men tipped it in her face and down her throat.

The girl claimed both men got in the back of the car with her and sexually assaulted her, and Khan made her touch him indecently.

Khan, of Nashville Terrace, Fell Lane, Keighley, told the jury he and Ali, of Catherine Street, Keighley, had been to Bradford for something to eat and he was driving them home when they noticed the girl crying.

He said she rushed to the car and asked to use his mobile phone to ring her boyfriend.

He said she got into the car and sat in the back.

He said he drove to a garage to get diesel and put air in his tyres.

He said the girl was socialising with them.

Khan said Ali decided to go back to the garage to buy alcohol.

Khan said he had a small amount of vodka with a soft drink and Ali and the girl were drinking the vodka.

He denied that either of them forced the girl to drink it.

He said the car was never locked.

At no stage did they keep her in the car and stop her from getting out, he told the court.

The trial continues.