A MAN of 22 who is accused of raping a young girl while he babysat her a decade ago has denied having an underwear fetish.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court has been told by the prosecution that Liam Bacon as a 12-year-old schoolboy had dressed the girl, then aged five, in her mother's red thong before raping her.

Bacon, of Keighley Road, Denholme, denies four sample charges of raping the girl, now in her mid teens, in Bradford between 2004 and 2006.

He is said to have given her sweets and biscuits afterwards and told her not to tell anyone.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, confided in a school friend in 2013 after learning about sexual health issues in class.

Staff at the college she attends were alerted and the police were called, prosecutor Jeremy Hill-Baker has told the court.

But giving evidence in his defence today on the third day of the trial, Bacon told the jury he spent more time playing football and wrestling with her younger boisterous brothers who could not be left alone or else they would bicker.

He said on the occasions he babysat, which was usually only for half-an-hour to one-and-a-half-hours until the father came back from work, the girl would be in her bedroom reading or doing homework.

Bacon said he never went into her bedroom and if he ever spoke to her when she was in there, it would only be through the open door.

He also said the only time she was ever crying or distressed when he was there, was the time she had asked to join in a game with her brothers sliding down the stairs wrapped in a duvet and hit her head on the radiator at the bottom.

Bacon's barrister Amanda Johnson asked him: "Do you remember any other particular trouble?".

He replied: "No, there was never any problem between us."

And she asked: "Was there ever any occasion when you babysat that you have behaved in any way sexually towards her?"

Bacon responded: "No, never."

The trial continues.