Teacher ‘asked 13-year-old girl for lapdance’

A FORMER biology teacher at Castlebrae High School has appeared in court charged with making sexual remarks to two 13-year-old pupils at the school.

Gavin Atkinson was a teacher at Castlebrae High School. Picture: Ian Georgeson

Gavin Atkinson, 57, is accused of asking a girl to perform a lap dance, told her he had seen her underwear and making comments of a sexual nature.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard he also asked a boy to imagine he had seen a female classmate dressed only in her underwear and made reference to the boy being sexually aroused.

He is also alleged to have assaulted the boy by pushing him on the body and using his knee to press the boy against a wall to his injury.

Atkinson, from Crocketford in Dumfries, is also accused of having a conversation of a sexual nature with a female trainee teacher, making reference to underwear and to sending her e-mails of a sexual nature.

He pleaded not guilty today to four offences alleged to have been committed at the school between August 1 and December 24, 2013.

A date for trial was set for November.