A SCHOOLGIRL who claims she was raped by a married teacher was "kissing and cuddling" a man fitting his description minutes before the alleged attack, a court was told.

A security guard who saw the teenager after she had left a nightspot at the holiday camp she was staying at said he saw her "arm in arm" with a man.

And Steve Carpenter said when they noticed him they "jumped apart" and started giggling.

It is shortly after this that the girl alleges she was raped in an empty chalet by 31-year-old Lee Savage, head of history at Bolton's Sharples School.

She told the court that Savage offered to lead her back to her caravan after a night out during a student trade fair on the Isle of Wight.

But instead, she said, he took her down a grassy bank and across a stream until he found a chalet where he allegedly attacked her.

Mr Carpenter, a security guard at the Haven Holiday Park at Shanklin where the pair were staying, said he had seen the 17-year-old girl at around 1am on March 31.

He said the girl was with a man aged around 30 with short cropped hair.

Mr Carpenter said: "When I first saw them I believe they were actually kissing. They were cuddling."

He said they then jumped apart and started to laugh after seeing him.

Mr Carpenter added: "She had a bottle in her left hand and she was holding the male's hand with her right hand. They then walked off down a hill arm in arm."

Mr Carpenter said a while later he had been told that a girl had been reported missing by her friends.

He said he got a small search party together and some time after 2am they found the girl not wearing any shoes.

"She appeared to be sober and apologised for wasting everybody's time because I said we had been worried about her and that we had got a search party out for her. She said she had been just having a chat."

Winchester Crown Court heard the girl then returned to the caravan she was staying at.

Later the next day the police were called and the girl, who had travelled from another school in Bolton for the trade fair, told officers she had been raped.

Savage, of Roseland Drive, Prestwich, denies rape and indecent assault.

The father-of-three told police he had sex with the girl but that she had consented.