A 75- year- old Essex man sexually assaulted a schoolgirl nearly 50 years ago while he was babysitting, it has been alleged.

Alec Smith allegedly touched the eight-year-old girl indecently after pulling her underwear to one side while they were sitting on a sofa, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

The girl told her mother what had allegedly happened when she got home that night and there had been a conversation between her and Smith’s wife, said Richard Potts, prosecuting.

He said Smith’s wife had returned home in tears after the conversation and refused to tell him why she was upset.

The girl’s mother allegedly told another of her children what her daughter had told her but thereafter the incident was “swept under the carpet”, said Mr Potts.

The alleged victim contacted the police in February last year and following his arrest Smith denied indecently touching the girl

Smith of Little Wood, Kirby Cross, Frinton-on-Sea, has denied indecently assaulting the girl between September 1968 and September 1969 when he was 26.

The trial continues.