A FORMER Bolton schoolteacher has gone on trial accused of indecently assaulting two girls at a primary school.

A jury at Bolton Crown Court was told how Neville Moss put his hand up one girl’s skirt as he marked her maths book.

And a second girl revealed that he would sit her on his knee and “tickle” and stroke her leg.

The offences are said to have taken place around 30 years ago while Moss, now aged 69, was teaching at Oxford Grove Primary School, Halliwell.

Julian Taylor, prosecuting, told the court that the first girl would be called round the back of Moss’s desk nearly every day.

“She felt she was singled out by him and felt special,” said Mr Taylor.

“She did not think, at the time, there was anything wrong with his behaviour.”

The alleged offences were only reported to police in 2017 when the former pupil disclosed what had happened to her to a behavioural therapist.

The ex-pupil told the jury: "He would hand the books out to other pupils at the front of the desk.

"When I went up he would point to the desk and he would mark my book in front of me.

"He would mark my work with one hand and, with the other, he would go up my skirt.

"He would go right up and down the leg from my knee upwards."

She added that his hand stopped when it reached her knickers.

"I remember it being a regular thing that happened all the time," she said.

She added that only her and another girl in their class were singled out to go around the back of Moss's desk.

"He made it, in a way, that I was special," she said. "I didn't know that it was wrong. It was only when I was an adult and looked back that I realised it wasn't right.

"At the time I was a naive little girl who didn't realise it was wrong to have a hand up your skirt."

The girl told how Moss would hug, kiss and joke with pupils.

Another pupil, who the court heard did not know the first girl and has never met her, also complained that Moss had indecently assaulted her.

In a videoed police interview, played to the jury, she revealed that pupils on a school trip would discuss Moss and referred to him as a "kiddie fiddler".

"We decided to zip up our sleeping bags so he could not get his hands in," she added.

The witness stressed that, although nothing happened on the trip, in class he would sit her on his knee and stroke her legs. She added that she could feel his private parts against her.

She added that she liked being singled out for attention and did not think, at the time, that he was doing anything wrong.

"I just remember I used to think I was his favourite and he used to tell me I was his favourite," she said.

Moss, now of Smithy Knoll Road, Calver, Derbyshire, denies six counts of indecently assaulting the girls.

"He admits he was a teacher at the school at that particular time, but it [indecent assaults] did not happen, according to him," said Mr Taylor.

The trial, which is expected to last three days, continues.