A MUSIC teacher is accused of sexually abusing seven girls and possessing four paedophile manuals- which acted as guides to help him avoid detection, a jury heard.

Nicholas Fisher, 43, from Bartestree, is accused of 'low-level' sexual offences including tickling pupils during music lessons- nothing sexual was suspected until police found the manuals.

Fisher, who had been a music teacher in primary and secondary schools for the last 20 years, also ran his own music school, teaching music to groups and on a one-to-one basis.

He pleaded guilty to making (downloading) indecent images of child- of which 29 were of the highest category A, 29 category B and 48 category C.

He also accepted possessing paedophilic material between May 2015 and November 2016- namely an item which was a web page titled Jazz Guide which contained advice about abusing children sexually.

However, Fisher denies further counts of making indecent images of category A, B and C and of of making a moving photograph of a child category A and B.

He also denied three separate counts of possessing a paedophile manual including one titled How to Practise Child Love.

Fisher also denies 10 charges of sexual offences against seven girls between 2000 and 2016.

The jury heard how on November 25 last year police seized his computer and found numerous indecent photographs of children and four separate paedophile manuals.

Fisher initially denied any interest in children and said that nothing related to child porn or abuse would be found and provided a password for police to access the computer.

Also found on Fisher's computer were images of young girls which were not indecent.

"These girls turned out to be former pupils of the defendant,"said John O'Higgins, while opening the trial at Worcester Crown Court on Monday.

"When the girls were questioned further, a picture emerged that there was a lot of touching during their lessons and little was thought about it at the time as it wasn't perceived as sexual. There was a lot of sitting on his lap and hugging him which was completely all unnecessary. A number of these girls were tickled quite rigorously on their ribs.

"The touching and tickling on their ribs could be sexual but might not be. It was the kind of behaviour which could be explained very easily and deny any sexual motivation and just being very tactile."

Fisher told police that he had the images on his computer as he was making music CDs from the recording of the pupils.

One of the documents found entitled Child Love Levels was seven pages long and described as a "guide to sexual activity with children graded by risk of detection levels one to five."

"Level two rated as reasonably secure included intimate hugging and intimate touching," said Mr O'Higgins.

"The paedophile can get sexual satisfaction from touching a child without exposing himself to great risk of detection. One of the things that is within that level is tickling.

"We say he has a sexual interest in children and in particular young girls and that is his motivation behind his otherwise unnecessary touching.

"The four paedophile manuals found were described as truly horrifying."

Opening the defence case Lucie Stoker, mitigating, said that Fisher had pleaded guilty on a basis to possessing the Jazz Guide and the indecent images inside it.

She said: "He downloaded the guide completely innocently as he was a music teacher looking for information about playing.

"He looked through the content to try and understand sexual abuse. He deleted the compressed file but inadvertently left the developed file on his computer.

"The remaining counts relating to images and guides. He denies any knowledge or intention of downloading those files. He was unaware of there existence until they were found.

"Whilst most of the contact is contact that happened none of it was remotely sexual in nature."

One of his former pupils described at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday how she used to have regular group music lessons at Fisher's former shop on Commercial Road.

Fisher would pretend to play the xylophone on her ribs and tickle her playfully which happened 'several times' between the ages of seven and nine until she was 11 or 12.

"I wasn't worried about it," said the former pupil.

One of the pictures found on Fisher's computer was that of a girl aged 10 or 11 from a holiday photo album on Facebook, which the alleged victim said Fisher had no reason to have.

Fisher had previously claimed that the pictures were for CDs of the children's musical work.

However, pupils couldn't remember ever receiving a CD of their work. 

The jury also heard how Fisher would give 'long hugs' to pupils as they entered the classroom and some would sit on his lap during lessons.

Some of Fisher's group classes consisted entirely of girls and the court heard that parents would stay in a waiting room.

Alleged victims who hadn't been pupils of Fisher's but knew him in a private setting also complained of similar behaviour.

One told jurors how he would teach her the piano and keyboard and she would sit on his lap. He would also tickle her under her arms and ribs.

She said that this happened several times over an eight-month period when she was 10 years old.

"I wasn't concerned at the time and not bothered, but I was young," said the alleged victim.

A picture of the alleged victim aged 10 was also found on Fisher's laptop. The claimant said she didn't know how he would have got it.

Another alleged victim, who was not a pupil, said: "He would always make a big deal and ask me to give him a hug. 

"He used to hug me really tightly for about 10 seconds. He used to tickle my ribs which sometimes happened after he stopped hugging me. This happened a few times."

Several photographs of this alleged victim when she was aged between seven and nine were also found on Fisher's laptop and one had been cropped to remove a little boy.

The girl's mother, who didn't know Fisher, thought that these had also been taken from her Facebook.

The trial continues. Fisher is due to give evidence next week.