A former trainee teacher accused of sexually abusing a schoolboy has been recorded telling him "you're not a f---ing victim" after finding out police were investigating their alleged "relationship".
Prosecutor Emilija Beljic asked the woman why she made the remark captured in a secret police recording.
"I was angry and confused, I hadn't done anything to hurt him," the accused abuser responded in cross-examination.
Throughout a jury trial that began last week, prosecutors have alleged the former territory "prac teacher" cultivated a romantic and sexual relationship with the boy beginning when he was 15 and she was 24.
She is fighting numerous charges, including persistent sexual abuse of a child, committing an act of indecency on a child, grooming, and making pornographic material available to a young person.
On Tuesday, the woman took the ACT Supreme Court witness box to deny the allegations and claim her and the student were only ever friends.
The name of the now-28-year-old woman and schools involved in the case are suppressed.
Jurors heard another police recording of the same 2022 conversation captured the woman saying: "Baby, don't f--- with me please. My ears are burning."
She denied that referring to the student as "baby" was common.
"I was flustered, it just came out," she said during her evidence, claiming being "extremely distressed and worried" after learning of the investigation.
Alleged victim 'pushy, forceful' over videos
The prosecutor asked the woman why she was so concerned.
"Because I had shared images with someone who was 15, although I believed him to be 16," the alleged groomer responded.
The court has previously heard allegations the woman sent the teenager explicit images and videos of herself at his "urging" and which he would later share with several people.
On Tuesday, she said she only sent nude content of herself after the alleged victim turned 16, being the age of consent in the ACT, and because "he was very pushy and forceful".
"He said he would delete it and he wouldn't share it with anyone," the woman said.
She accepted she could have refused requests the court heard were being made by the boy "every few days".
The woman admitted earlier sending "revealing ... cleavage" photos of herself, without explicit nudity, when she claims she believed the student was 16 and in grade 10. He was in fact a year younger.
Asked why she would have sent any image of the like to a schoolboy, the alleged abuser responded: "I felt pressure to send a photo and I did."
The court heard the woman eventually discovered the student's age when she found his school ID card in her car.
She said she felt "awful, foolish" that she had sent a 15-year-old "revealing images" and admitted eventually downplaying the nature of the files to police.
The woman denied asking the teenager for photos in return.
'40 or so boys' contacted woman
Jurors have previously heard the woman met the alleged victim in late 2020, when she worked as a pre-service teacher at his ACT school during her university studies.
She did not directly teach the boy.
In the witness box, the woman denied she regularly hung out with him and his friends during school and that she was complimentary of him at that time.
When she left the school after three weeks, the woman said "40 or so boys", including the alleged victim, sent her friend requests on social media.
She told the court she did not accept any of those requests, but that she eventually started speaking to the alleged victim when he anonymously called her and so she could eventually help him with an assignment.
"Do you think you were going above and beyond what was necessary to assist a former student?" Ms Beljic asked in cross-examination.
The woman responded: "No."
She accepted the pair later became closer and several other propositions, including that she had transferred the boy money, given him lifts, and bought him gifts.
But she denied doing these things to groom the teenager or cultivate a sexual relationship. She also denied any sexual acts ever taking place or buying the student alcohol, drug paraphernalia and vapes.
A charge of supplying cannabis to a young person, which the woman was previously fighting, was thrown out on Tuesday.
The trial continues.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525; Bravehearts 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380.
