A THIRD Winchester brother has denied a sexual abuse allegation.

Michael Elkins, 62, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in the 2000s at his flat in Drummond Close, Stanmore, a jury heard.

At Winchester Crown Court yesterday he repeatedly denied even touching the alleged victim or being attracted to her.

He said she was at his flat and he had made her a cup of tea and then taken a bath.

Katherine Lumsdon, prosecuting, asked whether taking a bath was some kind of "clumsy seduction attempt?" He said: "I don't think so. I never looked at her like that at all."

Michael, 62, a welder, now of Fleming Road, Weeke, said he was not even living at the flat at the time the victim said the alleged offence occurred.

He also said the flat did not have a number lock, as she claimed, but was opened by a key. She would have been able to flee the flat had she wanted.

The trial has heard his brothers David Elkins and Anthony Elkins are charged with attacks against a child as young as 12, dating back mostly to the 1970s.

Anthony, 69, a steward at Winchester City Football Club, is facing trial for abusing the girl when she was around 13 years old.

David, 60, is also accused of molesting two other girls, including an attempted rape against a girl aged between 10 and 12 in the late 1970s or early '80s.

David, of Battery Hill, Stanmore, denied the charges at the opening of the defence on Tuesday. The court heard the first girl was aged 12 at the start of the abuse.

Giving evidence, the grandfather-of-four was asked whether he committed each offence in relation to her, replying to each: "No, I did not."

The trial heard from a woman, now aged 32, who was a schoolfriend of David's daughter in the 1990s. She told the court nothing untoward had ever happened and she spent a lot of time at his house. "I looked on David as a second dad," she said.

The alleged victims cannot be named for legal reasons.

Anthony, of St Catherine’s Road, Highcliffe, was married with two children at the time of the abuse, the court heard.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Anthony said he would “never, ever” hurt a child.

Asked by Ms Lumsdon whether he talked to his brothers about what the girl “might be able to do” for them, he said: “I never said anything, or did anything to her.”

He told the jury: “If my father was alive now I would swear on my father’s life and I’d swear on my children’s lives now.”

A fourth brother, Stewart Elkins, was due to face trial, but died in August.

The three deny all charges.

Proceeding.