SCHOOL pupils have told a jury how they saw a teacher assault one of their friends.

Richard Paillou was a supply teacher at St Bede's High School, Blackburn when the alleged assault occurred in April last year.

The second day of the trial at Preston Crown Court heard how the alleged victim knocked on a boiler room door at the school where Paillou had been having a cigarette during his lunch break.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been locked out of the school by friends as a joke and had asked Paillou for the security code for the door to get back inside. Paillou refused and told the boy to use a different entrance, the court was told.

It is alleged that Paillou then lost his temper and assaulted the boy.

Paillou, 30, of Penwortham, near Preston, denies assault occasioning actual bodily harm. One of the victim's friends who had been standing inside the doorway said he saw what he thought was "a heated discussion" between Paillou and the boy and believed he had been trying to give him a detention. He said he saw Paillou motion with his arms for the boy to go round the building.

He said: "He tried to run away and he (Paillou) grabbed hold of him. At first he just had hold of his arm then he was turning him round. He must have been trying to wrestle him to the floor. He put his arms around him in a bear hug."

The teenager said the victim had tried to run off and Paillou grabbed him. He said he then saw the teenager's face pushed against the glass of the door where he was stood.

When questioned by John Jackson, defending, the teenager described the victim as being "a bit stubborn" and "quite rebellious" and the incident had started as a bit of childish fun.

In his statement to police, Paillou denied he was "really angry" with the pupil. He said: "He started complaining and it started verging on abuse. He was being cheeky, rude and insolent."

Paillou said the teenager had then tried to push past him to get into the school.

He said: "I grabbed hold of his bag strap with one hand. He set off and twisted himself with all his force. He pulled for a while and then he gave up and crumpled on the floor. I said to him 'get up'".

He denied grabbing the boy's arm or putting him in an armlock and said the reason he had not let go of the boy's bag strap was that he would have slammed into the door.

(Proceeding)