A FORMER Herefordshire detective tried to pick up a 13-year-old girl and put her in his car, a court heard today.

The teenager was extremely drunk and lying on the floor of the Belmont Tesco car park when Geoffrey Alan Gough was said to have attempted to put her in his Saab.

Keftutis Venckus told Gloucester Crown Court he went over to the youngster after her 17-year-old friend had asked them for help.

"The girl was trying to be sick and the man (Gough) was trying to lift her up and put her in his car," he told the jury.

"She looked very young, around 11 to 13-years-old."

Mr Venckus, who was returning home to Merthyr Tydfil from a Leominster car auction, told Gough that he would take the girl home but the serving policeman reacted angrily and said he would do it.

Gough soon drove away when Mr Venckus' friend Mark Davis questioned the authenticity of his police officer's badge, the jury heard.

By chance a police car then came into the car park and both girls fled on foot. The 13-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she ran away as she was breaking a court order by being out after 8pm.

Gloucester Crown Court heard earlier in the week that the teenagers got into Gough's car on Commercial Road before he drove them to the supermarket.

The 13-year-old said Gough put his hand down her underwear when they got to Tesco on April 12 of last year.

Gough, aged 55, of Spring Gardens, Malvern, denies sexual activity with a child and attempted kidnap.

He says he was victim of circumstances, having merely tried to help the pair by giving them a lift home.

The trial continues.