A PRIMARY school teacher has appeared in court charged with sexually assaulting three children.

Ross Newman appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week accused of assaulting the three girls between November 1, 2018 and March 26, 2019 during his employment at a North Ayrshire school.

The 24-year-old, from Greenock, Inverclyde, is facing three separate charges of sexual assault.

The first charge alleges Newman pulled a nine-year-old girl by the body close to him, placed his hands inside her pinafore and touched her on the bottom over her tights and squeezed her bottom and rubbed her legs.

Newman is also accused of placing his hand on the bottom of another child who was age nine at the time of the alleged offences.

In a third charge Newman is alleged to have again placed his hand on the bottom of a 10-year-old girl.

Newman denies all the charges against him and was bailed to appear at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court at a later date.