A WOOD carver allegedly abused a 13-year-old schoolgirl while pretending to treat mosquito bites on her legs.

Stephen McLeod was visiting the schoolgirl’s home in Newton Abbot and invited her to a room late at night instead of letting her apply a soothing cream herself, a jury were told.

The girl had suffered a lot of mosquito bites on her legs but McLeod allegedly moved his hands onto her private parts after pulling up a dressing gown she was wearing.

She was so shocked she only told a schoolfriend in a text a few days later and did not tell her mother for more than four years, Exeter Crown Court was told.

The girl finally plucked up courage while having a Boxing Day drink in 2015 and her mother took her straight to the police to make a complaint.

McLeod, aged 44, of Fore Street, Buckfastleigh, denies sexual assault. He says the allegations are completely untrue.

Mr Andrew Macfarlane, prosecuting, said the offence happened in 2011 when the girl was 13.

There was a problem with mosquitoes during the summer and she came home from school one day with a large number of bites on her leg.

Mr Macfarlane said: ‘The defendant said he had some cream to get rid of them. You might think he would give her the cream and let her apply it herself but we say he saw it as an opportunity to get close to her.

“He told her to come to him late at night when nobody was around. We say he saw it as an opportunity to sexually assault her.’

He said McLeod started applying the cream to her legs as she lay face down on his bed wearing a dressing gown. He asked her to turn over and he pulled up the dressing gown and touched her.

He said: ‘She froze. She had no idea what would happen. She mustered the courage to say she would do the rest of it herself and stopped him touching her.

‘He said okay and gave her a necklace, which she assumed was to encourage her to keep quiet.

‘She told a friend shortly afterwards but did not tell her mother until Boxing Day 2015, when she went to the police.’

McLeod told officers he collected gizmos and did wood carving. He denied the allegations.

Mr Macfarlane said: ;He said the allegations were sick. He said he definitely had not done it and felt disgusted at the suggestion.’

The trial continues.