6:36pm Monday 18th May 2009
The headteacher of a Pembrokeshire primary school has begun to explain to a jury how he cared for children when they had mishaps.
David Bryan Thorley, aged 56, said he kept a written record of the incidents and he had never removed the clothing from young girls or touched their private parts.
Thorley faces 11 allegations of sexual assault involving five girls. Earlier today (Monday) Judge Michael Burr said he would direct the jury to find Thorley not guilty of eight similar charges involving five other girls.
Giving evidence on his own behalf, Thorley described taking a young girl to Withybush hospital, Haverfordwest, after she fell and broke her collar bone.
He agreed he had taken her to toilet three times, always at her request, and that because of her injury he had unbuttoned her jeans and eased them and her pants down from the sides, but only after asking her if she needed help.
He said she failed to do anything until the third occasion.
Thorley said he then drove her to her grandfather's home, patted her on the head and told her she had been a brave girl.
Describing a second incident, during which the prosecution claim he removed a young girl's underpants and inspected her, Thorley said the examination had been carried out "sensitively" and by a woman.
Another woman had earlier told the court she witnessed Thorley examining a child and had become so concerned she secretly contacted Pembrokeshire education authority and asked for advice on what to do about it Thorley denied intimidating the woman.
Thorley, of Bryn Heulog, Heol Penlanffos, Carmarthen, denies all the charges against him.
The prosecution maintain that he had "an unhealthy interest in young girls" and abused his position to intimately examine the children and to apply medication in a "wholly inappropriate manner."
After his arrest Thorley told police he felt it was his duty under child protection guidelines to treat the children as he had and he had always ensured a woman was present.
The trial continues.
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