A court has been played footage of a police interview during which a former Adamstown teacher denied abusing a teenage boy he took on a shooting trip in bushland outside Newcastle in the 1970s.
Edward Smith Hall, also known as Ted Hall, is facing a trial in Newcastle District Court before Judge Ian Bourke.
Hall - who taught at St Pius X - has been charged with two counts of indecent assault.
He is accused of taking a teenager into the bush under the guise of a shooting trip, where he allegedly touched the boy on the genitals and squeezed his nipples after offering to show him the location of pressure points on the body.
Hall denies the accusations. In court on Tuesday, he reaffirmed his plea of not guilty.
Video footage was played to the court of a 2019 interview Hall participated in with detectives after the complaint was made against him.
During the interview, he told investigators the allegations were "absolute rubbish".
Hall told police he and the complainant had gone on a shooting trip together for the day, but rejected the allegations of abuse.
"If somebody had done that to [the complainant], he would have decked them - it's an absolute lie," Hall said in footage played to the court.
"I deny anything that [the complainant] has accused me of because it simply did not happen," he said at the end of the interview.
Cross examination of Hall began late on Tuesday afternoon, focusing largely on the times of year the former teacher had said he went on shooting trips.
Hall is expected to resume his place in the witness box this morning, when the judge-alone trial continues.
