A 59-year-old driving instructor is on trial in the Perth Magistrates Court accused of indecently assaulting 10 female pupils during lessons by repeatedly putting his hand on their thighs.
Gregory John Clark is accused of 49 offences, alleged to have been committed between 2014 and 2019.
The court has been told all but one of the 10 complainants were teenagers at the time, including some who were still at school.
Prosecutor David Robinson said it was alleged the touching was sexually motivated and not done to admonish or discipline the pupils.
It was also done repeatedly throughout the lessons, Mr Robinson claimed, and not isolated to just one incident.
Mr Clark is representing himself at the trial, and in an opening submission denied what he did was of a "sexual nature."
"Yes, I accept that I occasionally touch people, usually quite quickly in a passing comment," Mr Clark said.
"… I try to be a funny, laconic, entertaining guy. In hindsight on occasions, it's gone against me."
Mr Clark also highlighted that many of the complainants had "multiple lessons".
"That doesn't tell me anything in those lessons became a problem," he said.
"The description of the touching is not as it was described."
The first witness was a 25-year-old woman, who testified she had 14 driving lessons with Mr Clark when she was still at school in 2015.
The woman said her mother came with her for her first lesson and "nothing inappropriate happened".
However, she said in all her lessons afterwards, Mr Clark repeatedly touched her on her upper thigh when she was using the clutch.
Pupil 'anxious and unsure'
"I could feel his fingers wrapped around my thigh," she said.
"It might be upwards of 10 to 20 seconds, or [it] might be five seconds or so, but it was always at the time I would release the clutch.
"It just felt uncomfortable. I didn't feel comfortable enough to say anything."
"(I was) anxious and unsure of what to do."
The woman also testified that Mr Clark told her they should go out for a milkshake if she passed her practical driving test.
She said when that happened, Mr Clark asked her again as he was driving her back school.
"I just thought it was a bit strange. I said I have to go back to school. He asked a couple more times," she said.
Text messages revealed
The court then heard details of a text message Mr Clark sent to the woman after she passed another computer-based driving test.
Gregory Clark: Did you get your [P-plates] !!!!
Complainant: Yes I got them !
Gregory Clark: Good girl. You have to pick me up and take me out for a milkshake.
The woman said she did not respond to the last message.
Under cross examination from Mr Clark, the woman rejected his suggestion he touched her only when she needed help with her "clutch work", telling the court "No, it was all the time."
Mr Clark also maintained his hand was closer on top of her leg and closer to the knee, than she had described.
"No, it was on my upper thigh," the woman replied.
More women testify
Later three more women testified about feeling "uncomfortable" when being touched by Mr Clark.
Two of them were still school students when they had lessons from Mr Clark, with one of them saying she "knew his intentions were sexual".
The now 25-year-old said on some of the occasions Mr Clark put his hand on her thigh when she was wearing her summer school uniform.
"I definitely felt more uncomfortable knowing it was bare skin," she said.
She said she did not say anything at the time because she was "just in shock".
Under cross examination from Mr Clark, the woman said she continue to book more lessons with him after being touched because he "was a trusted adult".
"To me you were an adult figure and I should trust you."
She said she did not report what happened to the police until 2019 because she wanted to try to forget it.
"… That was my way of coping … I thought a couple of years later I felt more confident to speak out about this."
Another former schoolgirl said she continued to book lessons with Mr Clark because to not do so would be confrontational for her as a 16-year-old.
"I'm not one for confrontation so I wanted to continue until I got my licence," she said.
The third witness, who was 25 when she had her lessons, said she continued her lessons because she thought that maybe she was being "a little too politically correct".
"I thought I was misinterpreting it as something it wasn't," she said.
The trial, before a magistrate, is expected to run until the end of the week.
