A FORMER pupil sobbed as she told a court yesterday that a teacher stroked her bottom and made sexual remarks towards her.

The girl, who was a teenager at the time of the alleged offences, said she burst into tears after Joseph Kerr stroked her bottom.

She told Teesside Crown Court she reported the incidents to staff at Haughton Community School, in Darlington, to stop other pupils falling victim.

Giving evidence via video link, the girl, who is not named to protect her identity, said: "I was so scared. You have not been in that position so you do not know. It is not nice.

"I was really emotional and crying. I was very upset. I know what he did."

It is alleged that Mr Kerr, who had been at the school for more than two years, asked the girl if she was virgin, commented on her body and twice stroked her bottom.

The 43-year-old, of Abbey Road, Darlington, denies two counts of sexual activity with a child.

Under cross-examination, the teenager denied she was making up the incidents.

She said: "I am not lying about this. He did touch me. He did, he did."

In police interviews played in court, the girl said she reported the incidents to staff after he groped her bottom in the school corridor and became upset.

She said: "If he thinks he can get away with it with me, he is obviously going to try it with somebody else.

"If he had done something, I would have been stupid for not telling anybody, that is why I decided to take it further."

When asked why she had told staff she did not want Mr Kerr to know she had "grassed him up", the girl said: "I was scared in case he came up to me and said something or shouted."

She denied she had made up the incidents to have the date of an exam she was taking put back.

The trial continues.