Chris Dawson was seen in his high school office with a teenage student sitting on his lap, a court has heard.
Convicted wife killer Dawson, 74, is standing trial in the NSW District Court accused of engaging in sexual activities with a then 16-year-old student at a high school where he taught.
During her evidence, the woman – who can only be known as AB – says she was groomed before first engaging in sexual activities with Dawson in his parents’ bed in the second half of 1980.
On her second day on the witness stand, AB at one time became emotional and she was given several minutes to compose herself before continuing her evidence.
Dawson has pleaded not guilty to one count of carnal knowledge, with his lawyers arguing his first sexual activity with the girl did not occur until after her 17th birthday in February 1981.
However, AB has alleged during her evidence that their first sexual activity occurred in about August or September 1980 when she was 16 years old and in his year 11 sports class.
She told the court on Wednesday that on a written exam, she included a reference to their sexual activities.
AB said she couldn’t remember the exact words but remembered they were for “him alone”.
She told the court that by that time she had been engaged in sexual activity with Dawson for “quite a long time”.
She told the court that a friend told her she thought it would be “funny” if she wrote something “exotic” about their sexual activities.
But she says she was left confused when he tore off the part of the exam where she had made reference to their sexual activities and gave her a zero.
“I handed it to him hoping he would like that,” AB said in her testimony on Wednesday.
“He tore off the portion of that exam and gave me a zero.
“I was a bit confused by that. As a 16-year-old, you don’t understand why this is going on, but he just gave me zero.”
AB has told the court that she engaged in sexual activities with Dawson in the back seat of his car, in his school office and in a pool while his twin brother was up the other end.
She told the court that Dawson gave her cards including one in which he signed off as “God”, which AB said was an attempt to disguise his identity.
In another, he addressed: “the most beautiful girl in the world on her 17th birthday”.
A former schoolmate of AB’s said that she noticed her friend began going missing during recess and lunch around the first half of 1980.
The woman, who also cannot be identified, told the court that she noticed AB going into Dawson’s office.
The court has heard that AB endured an unhappy home life at the hands of an alcoholic mother and stepfather.
The woman said that AB told her Dawson would: “give her guidance and this is why she needed to be in his office.”
She said she and her friends would often go to Dawson’s office and knock on the door, asking for AB to come out.
“Once I opened the door and I saw her sitting on his lap,” the woman said.
The woman told the court that by the end of Year 11, AB told them Dawson had proposed marriage, professed his “love” and promised to “look after” her.
The woman said she thought it “strange” that AB began disappearing from their social gatherings on Friday nights and weekends.
Under cross examination, she was asked whether she was mistaken about the timing of the incidents and whether she in fact saw AB’s relationship with Dawson begin to evolve in Year 12 rather than Year 11.
The woman told the court she was adamant it was in Year 11.
“I was shocked to see her sitting on his lap,” the woman told the court.
“When I saw that, I thought there was more to this than what she was telling me.”
Under questioning from defence barrister Claire Wasley, the woman also denied she was mistaken about the identity of the girl he saw on Dawson’s lap.
Dawson, a former Newtown Jets player, was last year sentenced to 24 years in jail over the murder of his wife Lynette Simms.
He has maintained his innocence and has lodged a notice of intention to appeal.
The trial before Judge Sarah Huggett continues.