A young girl told police she didn't like how her swimming teacher was holding her and that it felt "weird", a Sydney jury has heard.
The child told the detective in March 2019 that he began holding her in the deep end of the pool while correcting her freestyle.
"It felt really uncomfortable ... because I didn't like it," she told police.
When asked how it made her feel, she replied "weird".
The girl began the interview by answering questions accurately about the difference between a lie and truth, while she was stroking a special toy.
Kyle James Henk Daniels, 22, has pleaded not guilty to 26 charges, including multiple counts of having sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and indecently assaulting a person under 16.
On Thursday the District Court heard the girl describe her teacher propping her up in a Mosman pool on Sydney's north shore, around her stomach and vagina, for about two minutes.
She then told her mother she wanted to move her swimming lesson day because "I didn't want him to hold me like that again", she said.
While she couldn't remember his name she described "the man in swimming lessons" with brown hair who touched outside her swimmers.
In his opening statement, defence lawyer Leslie Nicholls said the real dispute of the trial was whether his client "deliberately and unlawfully touched the private areas" of the girls he taught.
"(He) absolutely and totally denies that he did so."
"This is not a case involving an accused person saying "don't tell mum about what I just did .... are you OK, did that feel OK?" Mr Nicholls whispered to the court.
He also criticised the detective in charge of the investigations saying she may have influenced the girls' responses.
Crown prosecutor Karl Prince said Daniels touched nine of his students on or near their genitals while teaching between February 2018 and February 2019.
The trial continues before Judge Kara Shead.
Australian Associated Press
