I did not touch girl on midnight trip to quarry, Carlisle man tells court
Last updated at 11:56, Wednesday, 28 November 2012
A man has told a court that he did not touch a girl in a sexual manner when he drove her to a quarry at midnight.
Related: Girl sobs as she tells Cumbrian court how she was groped
Mark Klein, 46, of Charles Street, Carlisle, had been giving the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, a ride home on his motorbike.
He told Carlisle Crown Court that they had gone to see the site of the former Kingswood Activity Centre, near Dalston, and then on to a disused quarry at Caldbeck.
It is here, at the quarry, that the girl alleges that Klein touched her bottom and tried to kiss her.
Klein said: “There was no personal conversation. We talked about the stars and I showed her various landmarks and the lights in England and Scotland.
“We didn’t get off the bike and we didn’t remove our helmets.”
Klein said the girl took a phone call off her dad and said he wasn’t “happy” so they made their way home.
Klein said: “We got back to the girl’s house at 1am. Her dad was standing outside and he shouted to her to get in the house. He threw her bag into the hall and everything scattered.
“He started to try and pick a fight with me but we’d done nothing wrong.”
In the days that followed, Klein said he received a message from the girl asking him to delete her off Facebook.
Klein said he sent a series of messages to the girl as he believed her dad was using her account and he was trying to get him to “bite”.
The prosecution claim Klein contacted the girl by text message and social networks under an assumed name, where he made many sexual suggestions.
Klein has denied engaging in sexual activity with a child and four other charges – three of voyeurism and one charge of committing an act intending to pervert the course of justice.
He is also accused of installing cameras in the bathrooms of two houses and filming women and a girl under 16 while they were undressed.
Klein said he had installed one of the cameras so he could see if one of the girl’s was smoking in her bathroom.
The trial continues.
First published at 11:46, Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
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