A 33-year-old teacher at a primary school in the west allegedly molested four male students on eight separate occasions. Between 2011 and 2012, he is accused of hugging and kissing the boys, and touching one of them in the genitals.

On Monday, a trial began against the man over two charges relating to one of the boys, then part of a uniformed group where the man is a teacher-in-charge. In March 2012, he allegedly twice hugged and kissed the student during the lead-up to a competition he was preparing the group for.

The first offence is said to have taken place at the teacher's work station in the school staff room, when the man was giving the student make-up training on how to tie knots. The second allegedly happened about two weeks later in a school store room, where he allegedly also stuck his tongue down the 12-year-old's mouth.

The bachelor, understood to be a mother tongue teacher, cannot be named to protect the identities of his alleged victims, who were then aged between 10 and 12. He has been interdicted from his duties with the school,

The maximum penalty for outraging the modesty of someone under the age of 14 is a jail term of five years, a fine and caning.