A HEALTH worker who allegedly went against procedure and performed a sexual health test on a schoolgirl told her 'it would only take two minutes', a jury was told.

Damien Bible, 26, a health care adviser at Parallel, a clinic for young people in Bolton that offers sexual advice, is accused of carrying out an intimate sexual health test on the girl using a cotton swab when he had no accreditation to do so.

The jury was told that two of the girl's friends were present in a consultation room at the time - all three under the age of 16.

Bible, from Daubhill, Bolton, denies a single charge of engaging in sexual activity with a child in January last year.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury that she attended the clinic to get the results of a previous sexual health test.

Bible, the trial heard, said she needed another test for chlamydia and carried out the swab exam himself without wearing any gloves or washing his hands.

During a police interview played to the jury, one of the girl's friends said the girl did not want to have the test done, but Bible told her `that it would only take two minutes.'

She told police that both she and her friend stood beside the girl's head as Bible carried out the swab. The jury was told that the schoolgirl was lying partially dressed on a table.

Giving evidence by video link yesterday, the friend dismissed as `not true' a suggestion from defence counsel Ian McMeekin that the girl performed the test on herself under Bible's instruction.

The jury was told that Bible had previously asked the girl a range of questions about her sexual health, general wellbeing and mental state, and he appeared `concerned' about her.

Uncomfortable

But she said: "She was uncomfortable about having it done altogether. Damien asked her if she wanted to do it herself or if she wanted him to do it. I said that he should do it because he knows what he is doing."

Mr McMeekin suggested that the girl carried out the test on herself and Bible simply put the swab in a container after directing her to an instruction poster on the wall behind a curtained-off area of the room.

But the girl witness said: "That is not true."

She went on: "We were a bit confused about why she had to have the other swab test, but we did not think much about it. I had my thoughts that he was not supposed to do the swab on his own without a chaperone."

The prosecution allege that Bible, who has worked at the clinic since April 2006, carried out the procedure `contrary to all proper procedure'.

He is also accused of asking the girl a number of `inappropriate questions' relating to her sexual experience. The jury was told that he asked for her phone number then called her repeatedly in the days that followed.

Bible was arrested in July last year after the girl spoke with her school nurse.

Proceeding