The trial of a former catholic school teacher accused of sexually abusing a student began on Friday in the ACT Supreme Court.
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Prosecutors contend that on two occasions in the 1980s, Peter Cuzner, 61, touched the boy while purporting to look for a pulse.
The boy was 13 or 14 and in year 9 at Daramalan College. He had only that year joined the school from another in Canberra.
Cuzner was the boy's year co-ordinator and commerce teacher.
The student, now an adult, gave evidence on Friday, telling the court he remembered Cuzner would wear "80s style pastel" jumpers.
He said he was often sent to Cuzner's office in trouble.
"I was sent to [year co-ordinator Cuzner] frequently ... apparently I used to get in a lot of fights, I was the new kid," he said.
On one occasion, he said Cuzner took him for a drive in his VW Beetle, from the Dickson school to the Canberry Fair in Watson.
The fair's car park was empty, the complainant told the court.
"He pulled up and told me I looked nervous, my pulse was racing.
"And he said, 'let me check your pulse'," he said.
The teacher pressed his fingers on the boy's wrist and then neck.
The witness, who gave evidence via videolink from a remote room, said Cuzner then explained how you could read a pulse at the groin.
He said Cuzner used a hand to reach under his unbuckled school pants, and the teacher spent some minutes feeling for a pulse.
The witness said Cuzner then undid his own pants and said he'd "show me where it was". He said he tried for several minutes.
They returned to the school, and the boy returned to class.
During another incident, in the school holidays, the witness said it was arranged he would go to Cuzner's home to do some gardening.
Cuzner picked the boy up and drove him to his Macgregor home.
After work was finished outside, Cuzner offered him a shower. By this point, the complainant said, Cuzner's wife had gone out.
Once in the master bedroom, he said the teacher handed him a towel and the student started showering in the bedroom ensuite.
Cuzner followed him in naked, but the boy quickly "jumped out".
With towels wrapped around their bodies, the complainant said Cuzner was talking about the time "we couldn't find your pulse".
They lay on the bed and Cuzner reached under the towel.
"He was touching my bikini line ... trying to find this vein that is strong enough to read my pulse," the former student said.
Prosecutor Margaret Jones asked the witness why he didn't tell any teachers, or his parents about either incident at the time.
"Apart from the massive embarrassment, that this still is ... but why would they believe me?" he told the court.
He said Cuzner was a school master, and he a troubled boy.
Prosecutors say none of the alleged touches were lawful.
"The accused had no reason to have his hand anywhere near [the boy's] groin," Ms Jones said in her opening address.
Defence barrister John Masters also addressed the jury, briefly.
"I only urge you to be careful, until you've heard everything that everyone's got to say," he said.
"The trial's not over until all the evidence is heard."
Cuzner faces trial charged with two counts of indecent assault.
The trial continues before Chief Justice Helen Murrell.
