A PRESTWICK man has appeared in court accused of historic sexual assaults on five girls – one of them just four years old.

Brian McCulloch denied 11 allegations of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour and sexual assaults of children under 13.

The 50-year-old pleaded not guilty to all the charges during a brief hearing at Ayr Sheriff Court.

He is alleged to have sexually assaulted one girl on various occasions between December 2005 and November 2010 at an address in Ayr, when the girl was aged between five and nine,.

A second charge accuses him of sexually assaulting the same girl on various occasiona between December 2010 and December 2013.

Mr McCulloch is also alleged to have engaged in sexual activity with the same girl between December 2013 and December 2016.

Separately, Mr McCulloch is accused of sexually assaulting a second girl between July 2006 and July 2010 at various locations in Ayr, including at what was then the town’s Odeon cinema.

He faces further charges of sexual assault against the same girl between July and November 2010, and again between December 2010 and July  2011.

It’s also alleged that Mr McCulloch engaged in sexual activity with a third girl in Ayr, then aged 13 and 14, over a two-year period between July 2011 and July 2013.

A further charge accuses him of sexually assaulting a girl who was aged between 8 and 10 between July 2017 and July 2020.

The Crown also alleges that he sexually assaulted another girl, then aged between six and eight, between May 2017 and May 2020.

The final charge accuses Mr McCulloch, of Arran Park, of sexually assaulting a girl between the ages of four and six on various occasions between January 2020 and March 2022.

At a pre-trial hearing, defence solicitor Tony Currie told Sheriff Mhairi MacTaggart that his client was pleading not guilty to all the charges on the indictment.

Mr McCulloch’s bail was continued and he will return to court at a later date.