A PROPERTY developer molested three young girls repeatedly, a court has heard.

Robert James, 53, of Heaton Gardens, South Shields, South Tyneside, touched the girls, aged under 11, and exposed himself to them during a 13-month period that ended in February, a jury at Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Mr James pleaded not guilty to nine counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency with a child.

Alec Burns, prosecuting, said Mr James assaulted the girls between January 1 last year and February 6 this year.

Mr Burns said: "On numerous occasions, he did indecent things."

The court was told that when Mr James was alone with the girls, he would expose himself to them, touch them and make them touch him while he performed a sex act on himself.

The prosecution said one of the older girls was indecently assaulted in Mr James' van, and was victim to an incident of gross indecency during a game of hide-and-seek in the walk-in bathroom cupboard at a house Mr James had renovated.

Mr Burns told the jury: "When you hear the graphic descriptions of how this felt, I would suggest it is not something a ten-year-old would describe without having experienced it."

Giving evidence by video link, one girl said Mr James made her touch his private parts, even though she knew it was wrong.

The trial continues.