A TAXI driver accused of sexually assaulting a teenager passenger has insisted he did not touch her apart from moving her foot from his dashboard.

Giving evidence in his own defence on the third day of his trial at Bolton Crown Court, Ogato Koji told a jury: "I asked her to take it down. She didn't respond or anything but I pushed.

"At that point I'm very angry — we're in danger, I'm driving."

The court heard that the 19-year-old woman had been out with a friend in Bolton town centre in the early hours of February 2 last year and, at 4.40am, decided to go home.

Koji, a father-of-11,says he was waiting in Bradshawgate for a customer when the woman opened the door of his Toyota Prius and he thought she was the fare he was to collect.

Koji, who is originally from the Oromu community in Ethiopia, told the court that he asked if she was called Lee and she wrongly said she was.

He added that he could not check the booked customer's details on his Metro taxi screen because he had forgotten his glasses.

The prosecution claim that, after the woman told him she needed to get money to pay him from a cash machine, he told her she could pay "in another way".

He was said to have kissed her while at red traffic lights, put his hands on her thighs and pulled at her knickers, stopping the assault when the lights changed.

The car pulled into a petrol station where there was a cashpoint and Koji drove away after the teenager got out of the vehicle.

Chloe Fordham, prosecuting, suggested he left because he saw her using her mobile phone but he denied it, claiming that it was at that point that he realised he had picked up the wrong passenger.

The jury was read statements from the Oromu Community Association and the Imam at the Bolton mosque where he worships, in support of Koji, the latter describing him as "a very respectful man who treats others with kindness".

Koji, aged 55, of Cambria Square, Bolton, denies sexual assault.

The trial continues.