A 55-year-old man accused of sexually abusing two girls almost 40 years ago told a jury he was sickened by the allegations and they were “a load of rubbish”.

James Pemberton denies an offence of attempted rape and allegations of indecent assault and indecency with a child, said to have been committed when his parents ran a hotel in central Bradford in the mid-1970s.

Pemberton, now of Glenlea Close, Pudsey, would have been about 17 at the time.

Yesterday Pemberton, an electrician, told Bradford Crown Court he was entirely innocent of all the charges.

“It is all lies. It makes me feel sick at the thought of it,” he said. “On my life, I have not done this.”

He told how he was arrested on suspicion of the 40-year-old allegations at an airport after flying back from holiday in the US.

The two women, now in their 40s, accuse Pemberton of abusing them many times over a two-year period.

Pemberton is said to have threatened the elder girl that she would be locked up in a young offender institution if she told anyone.

He is alleged to have kept the younger girl quiet by telling her he would go to prison if she talked.

The trial continues.