A former assistant headteacher of Falmouth School has denied deleting texts from his phone because they could have incriminated him. 

Terence Burke is currently on trial charged with a range of sexual offences against girls under 16, including four charges of incitement to commit an act of gross indecency, five charges of indecent assault, two charges of sex with a girl under 16, three charges of sexual activity with a girl under 16, abusing a position of trust and two charges of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity whilst in a position of trust.

Under cross examination from the prosecution today (Tuesday), the 74-year-old denied that no text messages were found on his phone because he had deleted them all. This allegedly happened on the day police arrived to arrest him on the first occasion allegations were raised.

He claimed it [deleting texts] was something he did daily and not because they were incriminating.

Earlier in the trial the court had heard from the detective sergeant in the case, who went to visit Burke at home. 

He said he had initially spoken to Burke's wife, who informed Burke that it was police officers at the door. 

The officer told the court: "I recall him being the other side of the room. He had a phone in his hand and he was focussed totally on the phone, and was trying to press buttons on it. 

"As soon as I could get close enough to him I took the phone out of his hand and retained that as evidence in the case."

In an interview with police when he was arrested the first time, Burke, who now lives in Swindon, said the accusations he’d had sex with a pupil under the age of 16 were “shocking”, “appalling” and “unbelievable”. He claimed in a tight knit community like a school if anything like this had happened it would have been known by many people.

However the prosecution named one teacher who was a good friend of Burke's and didn’t want to believe it when the girl reached out to her, but she knew who it was straight away.

“It was known to many people what was happening,” said the prosecution barrister. 

Burke denied it.

The prosecution put to him that when the second girl he was allegedly having sex with left school his next "victim fell into his lap" but she didn’t succumb to his advances and reported him.

He denied it and said he’d learnt his lesson after his affair with another former pupil and swore to himself he would never do it again.

However it was pointed out he’d sent 436 text messages to that pupil during a few months but had only sent his daughter 12 during the same period, despite claiming yesterday in court that his wife told him off for how many messages he sent their daughter.

Burke admitted he’d sent a text seen by one of his accusers to someone saying “Forget revision, let me show you what my c*** can do”.

But he denied it was sent to a pupil, saying it was to someone he “vaguely knew” on a course he’d been to up country.

“It was just vulgar banter,” he said.

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Burke denied abusing his position of influence to target girls and said he was just trying to help them. He said he did the same for boys.

He said he didn’t tell the police during questioning, after he was first arrested, about an alleged blackmail attempt for £20,000 from one of the girls because he didn’t want to get her into trouble - not because he didn’t want the police to find out about it. He said he still had feelings for her even though she probably hated him.

The prosecution said texts sent to a pupil were “soppy and childish”, trying to be down with the kids. 

“I am going to suggest it was an attempt by you to ingratiate yourself with a student you were looking out for,” said the prosecution.

“I am going to suggest an example of you honing your technique on [the student] who would have been your next victim.”

Burke denies all charges

The trial continues.