A Bradford teacher indecently touched a teenage pupil's groin during lessons, a jury heard.

Andrew Jobbings, 52, singled out the boy for attention and deliberately touched him on a number of occasions when he was helping him with his work, it was alleged at Bradford Crown Court.

Prosecutor Simon Waley said the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, became increasingly upset about the touching incidents and even felt he might be paranoid.

But on one occasion the youngster arranged a coughing signal with a classmate and when he went up to Jobbings' desk for help with some work he alerted his friend when he was being touched.

The boy told the jury that as he coughed Jobbings looked up and removed his hand when he saw his friend was looking round.

The youngster said the first incidents of touching - which involved the back of Jobbings' hand resting on his groin area for between five and ten seconds - took place about three or four times in February last year. The incidents stopped for several months, but when the boy started term again after the summer holidays there was another incident at Jobbings' desk and two more when the teacher leaned over his desk to help him with work.

On one of those two occasions Jobbings was alleged to have put the palm of his hand on the desk and then stretched his fingers out to touch the boy's trousers.

During cross-examination by Jobbings' barrister, John Lodge, the boy revealed for the first time that there had also been a further incident when Jobbings touched him in a book storeroom, but he said that had "slipped" his memory earlier.

The boy confirmed that Jobbings never said anything during the alleged assaults and that his hand did not move.

"If I suggested to you that any contact there may have been between you and Dr Jobbings was accidental in a cramped classroom, would you accept that that was at least a possibility?" asked Mr Lodge. "No," replied the boy.

Jobbings, of West Avenue, Baildon, was interviewed by police and denied any deliberate touching of the teenager.

He said he did not recall touching the boy in the groin area, but may have done so accidentally while explaining something to him.

Jobbings faces a total of four offences of indecent assault, covering alleged incidents in February, September and October last year.

He has pleaded not guilty to all.

Mr Waley told the jury: "Here what the prosecution say is that there was deliberate touching, because of the area where it took place, where it was of itself indecent.

"And members of the jury, the prosecution say if you find there was deliberate touching to that part of the body, however surreptitious, however slight, that would amount to the offence with which this defendant is charged.''

He added that the Crown's case was that it was not a one-off misinterpreted incident, but a course of conduct by the defendant.

The trial continues.