A school deputy headmaster yesterday denied groping the legs of five teenage girls in his office “for his own sexual gratification.”
Matthew Childs, 33, repeatedly said “no” to claims he rubbed his hands and legs against four fourteen year-olds and a fifteen year-old in his private office at Purley’s Harris Academy.
Croydon Crown Court heard the married father-of-two, of Ladygrove, Pixton Way, Forestdale would squeeze knees and run his hands up the skirts of the pupils.
He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child on various dates between January 1 and June 30, 2019.
The geography teacher conceded there may have been unintentional knee-to-knee contact when the girls sat close to him in his office.
“It could have happened accidentally, yes. If I was sitting in my chair at the computer and turned around my knee might haver knocked against theirs very briefly, for half a second,” Childs told the jury.
When asked by his defence lawyer if he had ever accidentally placed his hand on a girl’s knee the vice-principal said: “Not that I am aware of.”
Asked them same question about touching a girl’s thigh Childs emphatically replied: “No.”
On the subject of making physical contact with any children he told the court: “No absolutely not.
“It is not something we would ever do. That is clear through and through and it is not something I would ever do.
“We have clear training and updates.”
When asked if there had ever been any similar complaints during his teaching career Childs replied: “Never anywhere. No.”
He also told the trial it was a rarity to have a behind-closed-doors discussion with pupils in his office.
“The door would be open when they came in. The was open even if I was in there on my own.
“Whenever pupils came in the door always remained open. The door would have been opened all the time.”
Childs said his office door would be closed on the rare occasions a pupil wanted to talk about a sensitive subject.
He also said his open office was directly opposite the office of a female teacher and near the school Principal’s PA.
The jury were played the police interview of the first girl, aged fourteen years-old, who said: “I would get detention often and seeing he was in a high place of power get him to talk about it and take it off.
“I would have to sit near him and his leg would rub up and then his hand brushing over my knee, his hand on the knee and then squeezing and up my leg.
“He attempted to touch the underneath of my thigh,” added the girl, revealing her family were reluctant to report the alleged incident.
“My mum did not want to call the police in case it was a misunderstanding and she told me to move away from him.”
Earlier prosecutor Paul Casey told the trial: “He was a teacher in a position of trust, a vice-principal, what was known as a deputy head.
“He had oversight at the secondary school where pupils trusted him and came to see him to air problems and he had a safeguarding role.
“He acted as a de facto court of appeal at Harris Academy and abused that power and his position of trust for his own sexual gratification.
“He touches, with his hands and his own legs the legs of girls who came into his room,” added the prosecutor. “The repetitive nature of that activity is at the heart of the case.
“This happened repeatedly in similar circumstances. There is a sense of modus operandi here.
“Mr Childs may suggest these girls have got together to do him in by making false allegations to ruin his life and career.”
Police were first alerted by Croydon local authority on June 18, 2019 of complaints from three of the girls and two more came forward in the following weeks.
The first girl said Childs touched her on at least six different occasions and the second girl, also aged fourteen, said there were at least two incidents.
“He would brush his fingers against and up my leg and get higher,” said the second girl.”
The third girl, aged fifteen years-old, said: “I felt like he touched my leg. I moved my leg and felt it again.”
The fourth girl, 14, had to write a statement in Childs’ office. “His knee kept touching me,” she said.
The fifth girl, 14, said there was another pupil in Childs’ office when he touched her. “He placed his hand on my leg and did it again and started moving his hand up my skirt.
“He was talking to us about using a condom to have sex with someone and started talking sexually to us.”
Mr Casey told the jury: “There is an increasing boldness from Mr Childs in the nature of his language and conversation and touching a girl in front of another.”
When questioned Childs said the first girl had effectively “started a protest” within the school.
The second girl had skipped lessons and confided in him she had sex with a boy in a disused Waddon flat.
“I had to report what she told me. She’s got it in for me,” said Childs.
He said the third girl had “issues in life” and would visit his office “to chat and unload,” conceding it was possible there had been accidental contact when he turned in his chair.
Regarding the fourth girl Childs said his headmaster warned him there was a “possibility” of accidental touching.
Childs said the fifth girl got into shouting matches with other pupils and “would stir it up.”
The prosecutor told the trial: “Maybe this was an opportunity, you may feel, to get his retaliation in first and trash those making a complaint.”
Trial continues………….
