A woman has told a court how she “played dead” in a bid to stop her former art teacher from sexually assaulting her.
James Skelton Smith, 57, allegedly attacked the woman at his home on Nelson Terrace in 2008.
The witness claimed she curled up to reject Smith’s advances but awoke to find him trying to kiss her.
She alleged that Smith groped her the following morning while he was watching Hollyoaks in his living room
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the pair had met at a Costa coffee shop in Dundee city centre before moving on to Klozet on Seagate.
She went to Smith’s home after missing her last bus to Fife but said the mood turned sour after she refused to share a bed with the 57-year-old.
When giving evidence, the 33-year-old said: “It had been at least four years since I had seen him.
“I remember we were sitting on a sofa in the gay bar and he made a remark about a woman who was staring at me. He said ‘you should open your legs for her’.
“I kind of brushed if off as a joke.”
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She added: “We walked up to his home. He showed me his studio with his paintings.
“He asked me if I wanted to share his bed or stay in his daughter’s room. I said I wanted to sleep in his daughter’s room.
“He had quite a furrowed brow and seemed to find me wanting to stay in her room almost rude.”
The woman said she removed her shoes before getting in to bed. She claims Smith got into bed with her and pressed himself against her before groping her.
She added: “I didn’t say anything to him, I was extremely frightened. He said to me that I should go up to his bed so I followed him.
“I curled myself up into a small ball so I was completely inaccessible and that he wouldn’t be able to touch me.
“I didn’t tell him to stop, I was very frightened. I felt safer almost playing dead because I didn’t know if I was going to get out of this man’s house.”
The witness claimed she woke up to find Smith kissing her before being subjected to a similar attack while he was watching Hollyoaks Ominbus.
Another former pupil of Smith’s claimed he kissed her on three separate occasions, including touching her breast in his classroom.
The 28-year-old revealed she left school towards the end of her sixth year in 2009 because she felt uncomfortable around him.
She said: “It was towards the end of 2008 that I started to get this feeling that it started to cross a line. There was this expectation about spending lunchtime with him. A lot of pupils began to notice.
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“On the day that I decided to leave, he gave me a hug, pulled my face up towards me and kissed me. It was really quite sexual.”
The woman returned to his class on another occasion where she claimed Smith again kissed her and grabbed her breast without consent.
Smith denies assaulting several women at multiple addresses in Dundee over an 11-year period between 2008 and 2019.
He also denies repeatedly dropping a pencil or similar object to the floor, bending down to retrieve it and looking up the skirts of female pupils between August 2016 and July 2018.
Smith finally denies assaulting four kids at a school between January 2009 and January this year. The trial before Sheriff John Rafferty continues.
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