A RECEPTION class teacher convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls also abused a third child, a jury has heard today (Monday, January 10).

Alexander Eldridge, now 37, who has since moved to Somerset, is said to have touched the four-year-old girl on numerous occasions at a school in East Hertfordshire in 2017.

Eldridge, of Gould Close, Street, denies four charges of sexual assault of a child aged under 13 between January 1 and December 31 that year.

He is not accused of committing any offences in Somerset.

St Albans Crown Court was told he maintains he was wrongly convicted in 2018 of offences against the other two children.

Prosecutor Michael Williams said Eldridge was the reception class teacher from 2011 until his suspension in 2017 when the first complaint was made.

The girl in the current case said nothing until December 2020, three years later, when she told her mother, who called the police.

Mr Williams said: “She (the girl) thought he was a good teacher at the time, but now she thinks he was a bad one.

"She knew he had gone to prison.”

When questioned on March 20 last year Eldridge said he could remember the girl, but he denied ever touching her.

Mr Williams added: “The defendant says he never sexually assaulted her or any other child.

"He says he was wrongly convicted in 2018.”

Referring to the earlier case, Mr Williams said one of the girls had said the teacher touched her sexually when helping her to change and that he had used a Go Pro camera to film up the other girl’s skirt while she was sitting on his knee.

He added: “We say he has a sexual interest in children.

"He assaulted two girls in his class and we say this is the third victim of the defendant.”

The girl’s recorded evidence is due to be played to the jury tomorrow (Tuesday).