A Christian brother accused of sexually abusing a student decades ago has told a court he had no sexual contact with the boy "whatsoever".
Christopher Rafferty, 65, has pleaded not guilty in the District Court in Sydney to six sex offences from when the boy was aged 14 until he was 16.
They allegedly occurred in the mid-1980s at a school in the NSW town of Goulburn.
On Thursday, the teacher of 43 years was asked under oath if he had had any sexual contact with the student.
"None whatsoever," he replied.
Rafferty also denied an allegation that he took the boy when he was in year 9 into his bedroom, saying he could not have done such a thing without anyone seeing.
"My room was the only private place that I had in the college and that was my space and people did not come in," he told the court.
"Just because someone makes a complaint about sexual abuse does not mean it happened," defence lawyer Philip Dunn QC told the court.
Rafferty agreed with the complainant's wife's testimony that she called Rafferty out of the blue in 2004 and confronted him about the alleged abuse, but denied her claims that he offered her money and vowed to stop teaching.
Rafferty said he then notified a staff member responsible for professional standards at the school and referred himself to a psychologist.
He then took half a year off teaching to do a "psychological course" and returned to school later in the year.
Eight years later in 2012 he was brought before the Catholic Church's Towards Healing program and had to stop teaching for some months while the investigation took place, he said.
But when the investigation failed to find anything against him, Rafferty said he again returned to work until his arrest in 2015.
The judge-alone trial continues before Judge David Frearson.
* Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged 5 to 25)
