A TEACHER who denies indecently assaulting three girls had already been labelled a pervert by other pupils, a court was told yesterday.

A 12-year-old girl who alleged that Middlesbrough school technology teacher Peter Hewson, 50, touched her bottom, said that her elder sister and a friend called him a pervert a year before.

But she agreed that she claimed in a police video interview: "Everyone wants him to jail."

Her mother told Teesside Crown Court she was at the school when her daughter told her Mr Hewson touched her.

She added: "I said what do you mean? And she showed me that he came behind her, put his hands on her hips and moved up to her breasts."

One girl alleged that when Mr Hewson tucked her tie inside her school blouse he touched her breast and another claimed that he touched her bottom as she sat alone in a computer room, said Deborah Sherwin, prosecuting.

Police checked that they were not making copycat complaints after a storyline in EastEnders, the BBC television soap where a character Nikki di Marco, accused her tutor.

Detective Constable Graeme Riley of Cleveland Police child protection unit who arrested Mr Hewson on July 21 last year, said the teacher told him: "I've been there 20 years, and I have never ever touched any pupil inappropriately.

"I am totally innocent of any offences, I deny all three charges."

Mr Hewson, a father-of-three, who has been married for 30 years and adopted four other children, said he could not understand why the accusations came about.

A teacher for 23 years, Mr Hewsonm of Church Close, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, denies three charges of indecently assaulting the girls last June.

The trial continues.