A DEPUTY headteacher indecently assaulted a teenage girl while his wife was in hospital having a baby, a court has heard.

Frederick Peter Barton, deputy head of Mount St Joseph's in Farnworth, also abused a girl of 10.

Barton, aged 56, of Hough Fold Way, Harwood, is standing trial on four counts of indecent assault dating back more than 30 years.

He is accused of touching a girl, aged 14, in a bed at his home in Bolton after she had stayed over while she was babysitting his two daughters in March 1973.

He touched the girl again at Christmas 1974.

The babysitter, now aged 47, told Bolton Crown Court on Monday how she was asked to look after Barton and his wife Geraldine's children while Mrs Barton was in hospital preparing to have the couple's third child.

Barton had told her to sleep in his bed and he would sleep on the sofa, the woman told the court. But she decided to share a bed with Barton's daughter and was awoken when he came into the room.

The woman said: "He came in and tapped me on the head and said 'I told you to get into my bed'.

"I said I was fine but he said 'I'm Mr Barton and you'll do what I say'."

Barton moved his daughter into his own bed then climbed into his daughter's bed next to the babysitter, the court was told.

The woman said he pulled her close to him and put his arm around her.

"I just froze and didn't know what to do but I got up and went to the bathroom," she said.

The woman said she then had an argument with Barton before he got into his own bed with his daughter and she returned to the room where she had been sleeping.

The second alleged incident took place at Christmas 1974 when Barton is alleged to have gone to her room and stroked her back when she was sleeping.

The woman said she only called police in October 2004 after she studied child abuse as part of a GNVQ teaching course.

Two further indecent assaults are alleged to have taken place on a second girl. The first is alleged to have happened in 1976, when the girl was aged 10.

David Friesner, prosecuting, said: "Fred Barton told the girl to get into his bed and he followed her in."

Barton then made the girl touch him, said Mr Friesner.

The second incident is alleged to have happened on May 4, 1979, when the girl was 12 years old.

"He followed her into her bed and rubbed himself against her back," said Mr Friesner."

Barton most recently taught maths and IT at Mount St Joseph's but was suspended following his arrest in November last year.

He also previously taught at Deane School.

Proceeding