'I didn't do it' says driver

Mohammed Akbar, 39, was working for Rossendale Transport, said he did not touch the 17-year-old girl in any way.

Akbar, who no longer works for the company, was accused of flirting with the teenager and being sexually attracted to her, but said he was smiling and being polite as part of his job and said he was as friendly with old ladies. Akbar's defence claimed the girl, who has a caution for violence, was a trouble-maker on the bus.

The jury heard claims the defendant stroked the girl's breast and touched her below the waist after she got on his bus with her 15-year-old friend on Manchester Road, Haslingden. The friend told the court Akbar stopped the bus on Grane Road and they were so scared they tried to get out the emergency door.

Akbar, of Elm Street, Burnley, denies indecent assault, last July, at Burnley Crown Court.

Giving evidence, the defendant, said he had never done anything like the alleged victim claimed.

Akbar said it was true the girl and her friend had tried to open the emergency door. He said he had come out of his cabin and had been upset because the 17-year-old's boyfriend was threatening him on her mobile phone which the friend handed to him. He went to ask the girls what it was about and why he was being threatened.

Akbar told the jury he did apologise to the girl if she was upset because he had checked her ticket and told the pair not to open the door and to sit down. Asked by his counsel: "Did you ever at any time apologise to the girl in relation to touching her?"

Akbar answered: " No I didn't apologise for that because I hadn't done anything."

Asked by Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosecuting, if on a previous journey he had ever grabbed the 17-year-old's hand and told her she was nice, Akbar replied he did not say those sort of things but concentrated on his job.

Akbar said one witness said to have been on the bus and to have seen the alleged indecent assault had "made it up".

(Proceeding)