A 50-YEAR-OLD Oldbury-on-Severn man told a jury today that he felt sick with shock when he was accused of molesting a nine-year-old girl.

Paul Bennett, of Corner Farm, Oldbury-on-Severn, is alleged to have sexually assaulted the girl on two occasions while staying at a house in Stonehouse.

But he insisted to the jury at Gloucester Crown Court yesterday that he had done no more than tickle her playfully.

The first he knew of the allegations was when the little girl's grandmother confronted him the morning after the second alleged assault, he said.

"She asked me what I had been doing to the girl. She told me the girl was saying I had done this and I had done that to her. I was so shocked it made me really feel sick.

"She was accusing me of touching the girl in a sexual manner. I thought 'what the hell are you on about?' I was so shocked."

He told the court the allegations were false and the only reason he could think of was that the girl's mother was 'evil' and she had never got on well with him.

He has denied two charges of sexually touching the girl, one on April 19 this year and the other on an indefinite date sometime last year.

Prosecutor Tara Wolfe said the girl told a relative of the alleged assault the next day and her mother was then informed and called the police.

When interviewed, the girl said there had been an earlier similar assault by Mr Bennett when she was staying at the address overnight one day last year.

In evidence yesterday Mr Bennett said he had given the girl a kiss and had tickled her on the chest, tummy, legs and feet and she had laughed. He had not touched her sexually at all, he said.

The trial continues.