Ballet teacher on trial accused of sexually abusing students at dance school

A ballet 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 dance school in Argyll.

He is also accused with having sex with one of the two at various times when she was aged between 16 and 18 in a car in Argyll and at a hotel in Stirling.

Dumbarton Sheriff Court heard Barton, who denies all the charges against him, is alleged to have repeatedly rubbed his body against another teenage student during private dance lessons at the school.

He is also accused of sexually assaulting another girl at the dance school, who is listed in another charge as his student, on various occasions from the age of 15.

He is alleged to have kneeled in front of her and put his head close to her crotch, in abuse which is said to have continued for several years.

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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.

The charges span a time frame from 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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