A TEACHER was cleared of sexually assaulting female pupils at two high schools.

Hugh Livingston, 67, was said to have attacked the girls as a business studies and IT teacher in East Dunbartonshire between October 2011 and May 2019.

Six former pupils gave evidence at Glasgow Sheriff Court to claim that Livingston had attacked them.

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Allegations included groping a number of them and slapping others on the bottom.

One of the girls said she was left "shocked, uncomfortable and embarrassed" by him.

Livingston was also accused of making sleazy comments to the pupils.

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He denied wrongdoing in his evidence and claimed that he "laughed" with some of the girls.

It was put to him in evidence by his lawyer Allan MacLeod that he groped one of the girls and replied: "That didn't happen."

Livingston also recalled receiving an apology from a girl prosecutors stated he kissed and groped.

He added: "She told me that her friends had put her up to [making the allegation]."

Livingston also denied allegations that he told a pupil that he would "smack her bottom" if she did not leave her class.

He claimed he said: "Come out before you get scudded" in order to "ginger her up."

Livingston, of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, was found not guilty of six charges of sexual assault.

He was also cleared by the jury of two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.