A digital forensic investigator has given evidence in the trial of an Ipswich teacher accused of having conversations about sex with girls he thought were as young as nine.

Richard Cook, 48, allegedly told an undercover officer pretending to be a 13-year-old girl that he wanted them to be boyfriend and girlfriend and arranged to meet her at the entrance of Christchurch Park.

The teacher denies making indecent images and videos along with offences of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity. 

The charges allege that Cook made one indecent image and five videos in the most serious level A category, three images and 10 videos in category B and 19 images and five videos in the least serious level C category.

On Tuesday, Sergeant George Blake told the jury what officers uncovered on Cook’s phone after police seized it.

Sgt Blake told the court the material was found in a temporary storage area on the phone.

He said that analysis had shown a messaging app was involved in the viewing or creation of those images.

Cook is said to have spoken to the girls on this platform and examples of the alleged messages from him were previously read out to the court.

However, police could not retrieve these messages from the defendant’s phone because, although the app was installed when it was seized, Cook was signed out.

Sgt Blake explained the app will sign a user out if they login to their account on another device and then delete the previous chats.

He told the court he could not say for sure what would have been found in the message history on the phone.

Cook, now of Lambert Lane, East Cowes, has also denied one offence of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, three offences of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity and an offence of arranging or facilitating a sex act he intended to do, namely engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl under 16.

The trial continues.