A Uniting Church youth leader accused of molesting an underage girl has admitted becoming sexually aroused by her, but denied suggestions he'd acted upon those urges by touching the 14-year-old on the breast and genitals.
David John Round, a former teacher of maths and scripture at schools in south-west Sydney including at Narwee Boys High School, is accused of putting his hand down the front of the girls swimsuit during a church camp at Stanwell Tops in 1989, then touching her on the genitals while instructing her in surfing at Seven Mile Beach about 18 months later.
He is also alleged to have kissed the girl on the lips while dropping her home from the beach that day. She was aged 13-15 at the time, he was in his late 20s.
It is alleged Round later wrote a letter to the girl admitting he had lustful feelings for her and apologised for his hands touching you where they shouldnt.
However, Round told his Wollongong District Court trial on Tuesday the latter was a reference to times when they had played a dunking-style game in the pool and he may have bumped his hands against her breasts accidentally.
I guess I was trying to say I should have been more careful in the way I [dunked] her...and I wasnt, he said.
When asked about the use of the words lust in the letter, written in 1994, Round said he was referring to when they hugged tightly, which he said was common practice among the church fellowship.
There were a couple of occasions where we hugged that I felt uncomfortable, he said.
We hugged each other tightly and sometimes it was extended. I felt some kind of involuntarily stirring...that feeling of stirring before you have an erection.
How did you feel about that? his lawyer asked him.
Bad...lustful. Jesus said in the Bible even if you look at a woman with lust you have sinned, Round replied.
He emphatically denied suggestions he had acted on his sexual feelings as alleged by the woman, now 40.
The trial, which is being heard without a jury, will continue before Judge Andrew Haesler on Wednesday.
