High school sex education classes were the catalyst for a teenage girl remembering an alleged sex assault as a child, a court has heard.
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The alleged victim told a Canberra court on Wednesday she had known the incidents occurred but had ignored them until the lessons brought back the memories.
The man alleged to have committed the abuse, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting two girls in Belconnen in 2003.
The accused, then about 15, allegedly forced the girls, then aged six and eight, to put his penis in their mouths while he was babysitting them.
He has pleaded not guilty in the ACT Supreme Court to charges of sexual assault and committing acts of indecency.
On Wednesday, jurors were shown pre-recorded evidence by the two alleged victims. The younger girl said the accused had been her neighbour and a friend of her brother and sometimes babysat her and her cousin.
The alleged victim said, during one incident she could recall clearly, she had been in the accused's bedroom when he told her to put his penis in her mouth.
She did as she was told and after he told her not to tell anyone.
She told jurors there were other incidents but could not remember them clearly, but she said the defendant referred to the assaults as "our little secret".
When the classes in 2010 brought back the memories she confided in her cousin, who confessed she could also remember similar incidents occurring to her.
The pair then reported the allegations to their parents and the police.
Earlier, the second alleged victim told the court she had been playing hairdressers with her cousin when the defendant entered the room and told the girls to play a game which involved them putting his penis in their mouths.
They both did as told despite not wanting to, because "he was older than us and we trusted him".
The trial before Justice John Burns continues on Thursday.