A FORMER teacher from Petersfield accused of sexually abusing a string of young girls plied one of his alleged victims with cigarettes and alcohol, a court has heard.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard this week that one of Timothy Bleach’s last victims was a girl pre-teen girl he tutored in the early 1980s.

The jury heard the girl needed extra help to get into boarding school but was repeatedly abused at the defendant’s home, with her parents being none the wiser.

Mr Bleach is currently on trial having denied 62 counts of sexual activity, covering more than 100 incidents, with girls aged 8 to 11 over an eight-year period in the 1970s.

The 12 women who have made complaints against the 76-year-old of Hazel Walk, Broadway Park, were pupils at Weyford Junior School, Bordon, where Mr Bleach taught between 1972 and 1980.

The latest witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that she was frequently abused by Mr Bleach in his bedroom during after-school lessons.

She also told the court that Mr Bleach introduced her to smoking and alcohol and made comments about her genitalia during a later encounter.

She said: “He gave me cigarettes and taught me how to smoke and also gave me alcohol out of a flask. He also gave me a piggyback on one occasion.”

“My parents didn’t know anything about it at the time.”

Jeremy Wright, for Mr Bleach, suggested to the defendant that she was never abused in the accused’s bedroom as her description of the room didn’t match the layout.

“I’m suggesting you drew a picture from what you saw when looking through the door and that you never went into his bedroom,” said Mr Wright, to which the victim replied: “that’s not true”.

The trial, which started in November, is expected to run for six weeks with the defence expected to make its case later this week. The trial continues.