A Perth lollipop man on trial for filming himself allegedly sexually abusing young children, including a one-year-old girl, has insisted there was "nothing sexual" in what he did.
Michael Cyril Hyde, 60, has pleaded not guilty to child sex offences alleged to have been committed against five children from two families between 2011 and 2016, while he was working as a traffic warden at a western suburbs primary school.
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The District Court was told the alleged abuse was recorded by Mr Hyde and for the past few days, the hours of footage has been played to the jury in a courtroom that was closed to the public and the media.
Giving evidence in his own defence today, Mr Hyde maintained that there was "nothing sexual" in what he had done.
He was specifically questioned about his alleged abuse of two girls aged six, testifying that they had an "auto-immune deficiency" that led to them developing sores or lesions on their bodies.
He said he had touched them in the way he did "for their health" and "to make sure they were clean" and "to make sure they didn't get ill".
Mr Hyde said some of his comments on the video were "direct verbal proof" that the children did have a sore or lesion on the skin, saying he had been trying to ensure that they had not become infected.
He denied getting any sexual gratification from his actions, some of which he defended as "just playful behaviour".
"When you've got a six-year-old child … you don't look at them as being sexual objects … as having breasts," Mr Hyde said.
"They have a chest. You don't start breaking it down into vagina and chest."
Mr Hyde said he had recorded what he had done because he had eyesight problems and the viewfinder on the camera meant he could "blow up" the lesions on the children and see them "larger".
Mr Hyde is also accused of abusing a 12-month-old girl, after befriending her mother while he was working as a school traffic warden.
The court has heard he started babysitting the child, and her older sister, after gaining the mother's trust and it is also alleged he filmed down the older girl's top and up her school skirt.
Mr Hyde will continue his evidence when the trial resumes next week.
