DO denies carrying out sexual offence

Dispensing optician John Gill has denied charges of pleasuring himself in front of a schoolgirl and committing a similar act in the window of the Clear Vision practice in Knottingley.

Michael Smith, prosecuting, said that while the 14-year-old was having visual field checks in a back room of the practice the alleged victim had seen the defendant with his hand down his trousers and became aware of heavy breathing.

Gill told the hearing at Leeds Crown Court that his wife, son and a member of staff, Dean Abbott, had been present when the schoolgirl collected her lenses last August.

In a report in the Yorkshire Evening Post (November 9), Gill said the girl tried on the lenses but there was a problem and he briefly took her into a consulting room different to the one the girl had claimed the incident took place.