HAKIN MAN ON TRIAL ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY ASSAULTING TEENAGER
A MAN in his sixties has gone on trial accused of kissing and sexually assaulting a teenage girl.Huw Bridges, 65, of Haven Drive in Hakin, appeared at Swansea Crown Court charged with two offences of sexual assault.
It was alleged that Bridges kissed the complainant - who was aged 16 - and intentionally touched her breasts and vagina over her clothing on June 2, 2024, and that he touched her vagina over her clothing on an occasion between October 2020 and October 2021.
He denied both charges.
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Opening the case, prosecutor Hannah George told the jury that Bridges "took [the complainant] to a remote location - Carew Castle" on his motorbike on June 2, 2024.
There, they went for a walk.
Mr George alleged the defendant kissed the complainant despite her trying to move away and telling him that it made her feel uncomfortable.
He then went on to sexually touch her over her clothing, the prosecutor alleged.
The complainant reported the incident to her parents "almost immediately" after returning home, Ms George said.
It was then she also made an allegation of an earlier sexual assault from between October 2020 and October 2021, where Bridges was accused of touching her vagina over her clothing.
"The prosecution's case is the defendant had a sexual interest in teenage girls," Ms George said.
The defendant was arrested on June 14, 2024.
He gave a prepared statement in his police interview in which he denied sexually touching the complainant.
In relation to the kiss, he told police he put his arm around the complainant and "pecked her on the cheek to comfort her".
"He denied it was sexual in nature," Ms George told the jury.
Bridges was interviewed a second time by police, where he gave a prepared statement maintaining that he was comforting the complainant at the castle and denying that he touched her breasts or vagina.
The trial continues.
