A GREENOCK school teacher stands accused of sexually assaulting his pupils.

Ross Newman has appeared in court charged with carrying out sex attacks on three children.

Newman, 24, was in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court accused of assaulting the girls between November 1 in 2018 and March 26 last year.

The Crown say he committed the alleged offences during the course of his employment at a primary school in the North Ayrshire area.

The name of the school is not being disclosed in order to protect the alleged victims.

The first charge alleges that Newman pulled a nine-year-old girl by the body close to him, placed his hands inside her pinafore and touched her on the bottom over her tights.

He is also said by prosecutors to have squeezed her bottom and rubbed her legs.

Newman is also separately accused of placing his hand on the bottom of another child who was aged nine at the time of the alleged offences.

In a third charge Newman is alleged to have again placed his hand on the bottom of a 10-year-old girl.

Newman denies all of the charges against him.

He has been granted bailed and is due to appear again at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court at a later date as the case continues.