Art teacher sexually abused boy for years, court told - Sydney Morning Herald

A high school art teacher on Sydney's northern beaches had sex with a teenage student on multiple occasions, subjecting him to years of abuse, a Sydney court has heard.

Peter Wayne Scott, 62, is facing child sex and drug supply charges over a series of incidents at Cromer High School in the mid-1980s with a boy then aged between 14 and 16.

In her opening address to the jury at the Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday, prosecutor Nanette Williams said Mr Scott initially befriended the boy by taking him and his friends to the beach to go surfing and giving them cannabis, saying to them: "Don't let anyone know."

In 1984, when the boy was in year 8, Mr Scott then "started to have oral sex with [the teenager] and masturbate him ... and masturbated himself," Ms Williams said.

"You will hear that this happened, on average, one or two times a week when the two were alone at school, and that it happened for a long period of time, until the young man was in year 10."

Ms Williams told the court that the alleged victim could now only remember a small number of incidents in specific detail.

One of these incidents, she said, took place in the second half of 1984 in the cleaner's room above the school's gymnasium.

"The accused said that he would give [the teenage boy] pot, and once there he made a joint," Ms Williams said.

"He then ... performed fellatio. The alleged victim will tell you that he froze and didn't want to move or say anything because he was too scared."

Ms Williams said the jury would hear that the school's cleaner, Lenny Taylor, walked into the room while the alleged offence was taking place, muttered something under his breath and then left.

Ms Williams said the alleged victim would give evidence about a number of other specific incidents, including one occasion on the night after his 15th birthday, when Mr Scott allegedly gave him cannabis laced with heroin. The boy later found himself lying in the teacher's van with his pants around his ankles.

But Mr Scott's barrister, Matt Johnston, said his client denied all the allegations against him, and that the jury would have "significant concern" as to whether the alleged victim could be "accepted as a witness of truth".

"You will hear from Mr Taylor [the school cleaner] that nobody had a key to the cleaner's room but him," Mr Johnston said.

"He will tell you that he didn't come into the room to see a teacher fellating a school student.

"It is the case of the accused that it just didn't happen."