Teacher denies sex charges

A relationship between a student and teacher began with emails and grew into indecent touching, presents of underwear and expressions of love, a court heard.

Yesterday, a high school teacher went on trial in the Auckland District Court over the alleged indecent assault of a student on three separate occasions, between February 2001 and September 2002.

The teacher was arrested last May and all details relating to him, his student - who was 14 and 15 at the time - and the school are suppressed.

Crown prosecutor Lana Hamilton said in her opening address, the young woman, who is now 23, could not remember specific dates of the alleged assaults.

"Because it was eight years ago," she said. "She can tell what happened and will do her best to explain what happened ... The sequence of events is also not entirely clear."

The teacher's lawyer, Belinda Sellars, told the six male and six female jurors the incidents never happened.

"None of this touching, none of this kissing happened, full stop," she said."It just did not happen."

Jurors would hear a "vague" and "improbable" description of what the former student remembered that "just doesn't add up", she said.

Minutes after the young woman took the stand yesterday, she broke down in tears. Her former teacher sat emotionless behind a black screen, his hands clasped in his lap, metres away.

The woman paused frequently and sniffed as she spoke of their relationship.

It had been common for the teacher to hand out his personal email address to students to send homework, she said, and it began innocently.

But soon the pair were emailing and talking on the phone about their personal lives, almost daily. Then, arrangements were made to meet up.

In one incident, out of school hours, they sat at a picnic table on the school grounds, holding hands, and parted ways with a kiss.

"It was open-mouthed, using tongue," she told the court.

Earlier the Crown had described the next alleged assault. Again the pair were alone at the school - this time in a classroom - when the teacher allegedly rubbed his student's breasts and between her legs.

In the next alleged incident the teacher touched the teenager's buttocks, when another friend was present but couldn't see the act, Ms Hamilton said.

The student said she was given two CDs and a "black and lacy" bra as presents. She could not remember what the music was, saying "I think they [CDs] were ones he had made for me".

The trial is expected to run all week and seven more witnesses will take the stand. These include two other students taught by the teacher, who also allege inappropriate conduct.

Ms Sellars said her client was only guilty of caring too much.

"He was a dedicated teacher, perhaps too close to his students," she said. "This is not a trial about his teaching style, but about specific and serious charges."

She said jurors needed to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that "these things actually happened".