A SWIMMER alleged to have indecently touched three young girls in a public pool claimed they racially abused him and two other Asians.

Ashfaq Ahmed said that the girls saw him in the Water Place in Bolton and asked him if he wanted to race them.

He agreed but the girls later said he had indecently touched them while they were in the water and they complained to the management who called the police. Ahmed said he may have accidentally touched the ankle of one of the girls but denied indecently assaulting any of them.

The girls, two 13-year-olds and one 12-year-old, complained to pool management and then pointed out Ahmed to the police as he left the building.

Ahmed, aged 23, of St Helens Road, Bolton, appeared at Bolton Crown Court yesterday on the second day of his trial.

He denied three charges of indecent assault on the girls at the Water Place on October 7 last year.

In his police statement read to the court, Ahmed said the girls had invited him to race them and then later they began to racially abuse him and two Asian men.

He claimed that one of the girls told him that she was going to tell the manager that he had touched her friend.

Ahmed told her that he would tell the lifeguards that she and her friends had used racially offensive language.

He also told police that he was a regular user of the Water Place, that he was married and he denied the indecency allegations.

Proceeding