A Leigh gym-owner has denied that a series of videos shown to jurors caught him touching an underage girl’s private parts.

Matthew Rattenbury, 42, who co-owns Club One Hundred in Rectory Grove, gave evidence in his own defence on Thursday at Basildon Crown Court.

He denies a single charge of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 13, insisting that he was actually giving her a sports therapy massage.

"It's filmed at a 45-degree angle," he testified. "The position of my hand somehow looks worse than it actually is."

The videos were shot by a witness who happened upon what she perceived to be a sexual assault, so secretly filmed it to give to police.

Prosecutor Natalie Bird played the clips one by one, describing them to the court. Trial judge Recorder Nicholas Bacon KC has made an order that they must not be seen by the press or public.

Mrs Bird put it to Mr Rattenbury, of Chestnut Avenue, Gosfield, that some videos showed the girl sat in his lap.

He insisted the videos were “distorted” and deprived of context.

"I absolutely appreciate that looks worse," he said. "I didn’t feel at any given point that I had done anything wrong. I just didn’t – because I had no sexual intent.

“I will be honest: looking at it with the narrative it has, it makes me uncomfortable. I agree that does not look comfortable for me to watch and I feel naïve that I would have been in that situation.”

The girl was wearing a bikini throughout the alleged massage, the court has heard.

Mrs Bird suggested one video showed the alleged victim “springing away from” him.

“I don’t believe that was her springing away,” he said. “I believe that was her slipping off or fidgeting.”

He told the jury he had never even had so much as a speeding ticket and the shock of being arrested had left him so traumatised that his memories were hazy.

“I like to think I’m a responsible citizen who only does things positively and wouldn’t want to do wrong by anybody,” he said. “It was horrendous. It put me in an instant state of shock and panic.

“After being arrested, my memory of certain things has been affected.”

But he said he was sure he had committed no crime.

“How that felt is absolutely not how that looked,” he insisted. “I will say over and over again, with absolute clarity, there was no sexual intent there.”

The court heard that upon arrest, Mr Rattenbury’s phone, iPad and laptops were seized and searched, but nothing of concern was found.

Essex Police's DC Jane Grieve agreed that the defendant cooperated with police, handed over all his passwords and answered all questions in interview, declining free legal assistance.

Asked by his own barrister Anne Faul why he had declined a lawyer, he said: “I wanted to cooperate. There was nothing that I felt I needed to hide or not be honest about.”

He said he had spoken to police despite being in “extreme distress” and “dehydrated” after officers refused to give him any water for almost seven hours.

“I felt the best way was to be honest and cooperate with police,” he said.

“Are you being honest now?” asked Mrs Faul.

“I am absolutely being honest,” he testified.

The trial continues.