Dance teacher accused of having sex with two students and abusing seven others
A dance teacher has gone on trial accused of having sex with two students and sexually abusing a further seven.
Jonathan Barton, 40, is accused of repeatedly having sex with two students at a school in Argyll, Scotland.
He is also accused of having sex with one of the two at various times when she was aged between 16 and 18 in a car and hotel.
Dumbarton Sheriff Court heard Barton, who denies all the charges against him, also allegedly rubbed his body against another teenage student during private dance lessons multiple times.
His also accused of sexually assaulting another girl at the dance school, who is listed in another charge as his student, on various occasions from when she was only 15.
Barton ‘kneeled in front of her and put his head close to her crotch’, in abuse which is said to have continued for several years.
He is further charged with sexually assaulting five other students at the school, in some cases touching their inner thigh or putting his head near their crotch between 2004 and 2019.
The majority of the alleged victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were aged 16 or 17 when the alleged abuse began.
The trial, before Sheriff William Gallacher, continues.
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