A former Canberra basketball coach has denied repeatedly sexually abusing a junior player she mentored.
Jesamine Alice Wheeler sat up straight in her ACT Magistrates Court seat on Friday morning, when defence lawyer Kamy Saeedi entered pleas of not guilty on her behalf.
The 39-year-old woman formally denied four counts of sexual intercourse with a child relating to alleged abuse said to have taken place more than 14 years ago.
She also entered pleas of not guilty to single counts of choking and possessing an offensive weapon with intent.
Wheeler is accused of sexually abusing the-then 15-year-old junior player on four separate occasions in 2009 after the pair met four years earlier through basketball.
The alleged victim has consented to being identifiable in media reporting.
During the case's first appearance since Wheeler was arrested and granted bail last month, the court heard Basketball Australia was likely assisting with the matter.
A prosecutor said a representative of the national sporting body would soon be in contact with police regarding evidence from a "tribunal hearing".
"We're anticipating a significant amount of material that will need to be sifted through," she said.
Police documents state Wheeler was banned for life from involvement in basketball after an investigation by Basketball Australia into the allegations. The details of that report have not been made public.
Wheeler helped establish the Gungahlin Flames basketball club.
The allegations
Wheeler, then a 20-year-old representative team coach, is said to have met the junior player in 2005 when she was 11 years old.
The coach was "regarded as a mentor to the young female players and was often seen as someone in whom they could confide", police documents said.
Wheeler is accused of sexually abusing the alleged victim after gaining her trust through private coaching, and seeing the player against her mother's wishes.
Police claim Wheeler repeatedly told the alleged victim to keep their "relationship" a secret.
"The defendant told [the child] that the defendant could get into trouble due to her being [the child's] coach and due to their age difference," documents said.
A year after the alleged sexual abuses, Wheeler is accused of tattooing her's and the child's initials entwined in a love heart on her inner thigh. She allegedly always covered the "secret" tattoo when swimming in public.
Sometime between 2013 and 2014, when the alleged victim was 20 years old, Wheeler is accused of attacking her and later that year holding a knife to her throat.
Wheeler is set to return to court in September.
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