A man has been convicted on charges of sexually assaulting two little girls in a Colchester supermarket.

Steven Hughes claimed he may have "accidentally brushed" against one of the girls while she was shopping with her mum in Tesco's during the summer.

But a jury did not believe him and 20-year old Hughes was convicted on the charge and another of touching another little girl.

Sentence was adjourned for reports and Hughes was bailed.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard how a seven-year-old girl told her mum a man in a wheelchair had put his hand up her skirt while she was in Tesco's store at The Hythe, in Colchester, on May 31 this year.

The girl's mother alerted staff, and the jury heard how they kept watch on Hughes and he was then seen doing the same thing to a girl aged about four.

Hughes, of Magnolia Drive, Colchester, denied two charges of sexual assault and claimed he may have accidentally brushed past a young child in the store when he was in his wheelchair.

He said he remembered brushing past one child but could not say if it was a boy or a girl.

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Published Tuesday, November 22, 2005

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