A Southend businessman told police he was not sexually attracted to children and had not molested an underage girl, but accepted that somebody watching him could have got the wrong idea, a court has heard. 

Jurors have been read transcripts of Matthew Rattenbury’s two interviews with police after he was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a girl under 13.

He denies the charge and is currently on trial at Basildon Crown Court.

“I have no sexual desire towards a child, full stop,” he told police, twice waiving his right to a free solicitor.

A jury of seven women and five men were played a series of videos shot by a witness who happened upon what they interpreted as Mr Rattenbury sexually abusing an underage girl.

They had already seen the footage when prosecutor Natalie Bird opened the case on Wednesday, November 13 – but were shown them again the following day, in the order they were played to Mr Rattenbury as he was interrogated by child abuse detectives.

He told police he was a sports therapist by trade and had been giving the girl an innocent massage.

“There’s no sexual thought there,” Mr Rattenbury told the police. “But it’s horrible to watch. It’s horrible to watch. It’s knowing I’m being filmed.”

Mr Rattenbury, 42, of Chestnut Avenue in Gosfield, told officers he had gained a diploma as a sports therapist in 2005 by taking a “six-week intensive course” in Aphrodite Hills, Cyprus.

“Apparently, it’s the best qualification in the industry,” he said.

He co-founded the Club One Hundred fitness centre in Rectory Grove, Leigh, in 2011.

“It was my baby,” he said, describing the business as only offering personal training and semi-private classes, as opposed to being a gym that customers could just walk in and out of.

He also ran classes in Eastwood Hall, he said, and made a “second income” by offering sports therapy.

“So money-wise, you’re fairly comfortable?” police asked him.

“Yea,” he replied – but added: “I always, always strive for more.”

Asked whether he had completed any sports therapy refresher courses, he said he hadn’t.

“The technique stays,” he explained.

By the time of his arrest, he said, he only spent around “five hours a week” at the gym and spent most of his time on his new business as a property developer.

He had just acquired a commercial site in Leigh, with the intention of building flats on it, he said.

“Would you say more of your time is spent property developing than in the gym business?” he was asked.

“Yea,” he replied, telling officers the property business had left him “stressed” and thinking he might have “a nervous breakdown”.

His arrest had also left him “in a state of shock”.

“I feel like my mental health is already suffering, to be honest,” he told police. “It astounds me. I can’t believe I’m even having to talk about this.

“I’m really scared of what’s happening. I don’t understand it… It’s horrendous. It scares the hell out of me. I feel so uncomfortable.”

“It’s so hard in that cell,” he later added. “I’ve just been ripped out from my home.”

He told officers he was a “very tactile” person and had been engrossed in conversation with his alleged victim.

“I’m sort of more talking than I am thinking ‘Ooh, where’s my hand?’” he claimed.

“Why does she move away from you there?” an officer asked him after one clip.

 “Did I not push her away?” he replied.

“I’ve worked 40 years to get to a place where I felt really quite comfortable,” Mr Rattenbury told the officers – but now he felt it was all “flipped out”.

“There’s a stigma,” he said in the interview. “I’ve never spent a night in a cell. I’m as straight as. I would do anything to help anyone. I go out of my way for charities, not that that’s something that’s relevant.”

But now, he said, he was facing “the worst allegation there is. How do I come back from that? I don’t think I can.”

The trial continues.