A WELSHPOOL man accused of multiple counts of sex offences against children denied raping a pre-teenage girl as he took to the stand on the third day of his trial.

Tom Piggott, 21, is on trial at Mold Crown Court charged with 10 offences, including two of raping of a child, three counts of sexual assault on a child, two counts of inciting a child to take part in a sexual act, and three counts of making indecent images of children, to all of which he has pleaded not guilty.

In court, he denied that he gained sexual gratification from children, and said he did not remember sending sexually-explicit messages and pictures to other children under 16.

The court heard that a nine-year-old boy, whom Piggott had befriended, told police that the defendant had put his hand down his sweatpants when the pair were alone in 2020, but Piggott insisted that he had touched him accidentally during a "side-on hug".

The court also heard how Piggott had frequent conversations with the boy over Whatsapp, with messages deleted and conversations about a "secret", which the defendant said concerned the computer game Minecraft.

Piggott also denied in his police interview that he raped a pre-teen girl in woods in Welshpool.

The court heard she continued to receive and send messages to accounts linked or attributed to him – which he also disputed – over a number of years.

Earlier in the day, the court heard about a series of messages between Piggott’s account and two of the victims across the three-year period.

The messages allegedly discussed a threesome with one victim and her friend, and asked whether she wanted him to take her virginity at 14.

A computer forensics expert from Dyfed-Powys Police had earlier appeared before the court to confirm their assessment of the devices taken as part of the investigation found no malware on them.

Gareth Owen also rebuffed claims from Piggott’s defence that the devices, which were second-hand and purchased online, could have been hacked by residual malware following a factory reset.

He said there was less than a five per cent likelihood of this happening.

Data described to the court showed that there was an app on the device called Private Screenshot which was accessed in 2020, and there was a folder in which indecent images were found.

A search was carried out on his phone and results found searches about the sex offenders register and around attraction to young girls.

There were also numerous searches for pornography, and one about the prevention of child sexual abuse.

However, Piggott denied the searches were carried out by him and also denied installing Private Screenshot, but also admitted to police that he was unaware of any of his devices being hacked.

Judge Niclas Parry urged the jury to use "cool calm heads" in assessing the case when he opened proceedings on Monday.

The trial continues.