A MUSIC teacher compared sex with his partner to 'sleeping with a dead person' to a schoolgirl pupil, a jury at Dorchester Crown Court was told.

Ian Huw Garland, 30, of Stonechat Close, Weymouth, has denied four charges of sexual activity with a male student, 15, between March and September 2006.

Garland also denies twice indecently assaulting a female student when she was 12 and 14 between December 2000 and December 2001 and between December 2003 and December 2004.

The girl, who broke down in tears in the witness box, told jurors Garland used to run his fingers and a conductor's baton up her thigh during piano lessons.

She said she didn't tell anyone about it at first but added: "When I was at school I didn't have an awful lot of friends so I suppose I was flattered by the attention."

The girl said she joined a choir conducted by Garland aged 14 and used to go for extra singing lessons at Garland's parents' home, where Garland also lived at the time, in Wyke Regis.

She said Garland on one occasion started to touch her leg as he had before and kissed her, before running his hands over her body outside her clothes.

She said: "He asked me if I wanted to lie down on the floor.

"After a while I came to believe that he wanted sex."

The girl said Garland laid next to her and continued to touch and kiss her until she asked him to stop and take her home.

She added that after this Garland would sometimes talk about his relationship with his partner, Victoria, who he had not yet married.

The girl said: "He used to tell me it was like sleeping with a dead person.

"I could only have been 14 or 15 at the time."

Francis Abbot, defending, said it was his client's position that nothing had happened and that, on the day he allegedly asked the girl to lie down, his mother was in the house too.

Mr Abbot said the girl had gone with Garland to several musical auditions after the alleged incident but was often unsuccessful.

He asked her: "Is it your feeling that generally speaking you were disappointed that you didn't get those parts?"

She said it was but she tried not to hold grudges over it.

Mr Abbot also asked the girl if she had confided in a friend that she and Garland had kissed in his car.

She said she may have done but could not remember.

Mr Abbot replied: "If you had done that would be untrue, wouldn't it?"

Another music teacher, speaking from the stand, said she used to be Garland's friend but stopped associating with him after hearing numerous rumours about his behaviour with minors.

Speaking directly to Garland, in tears, she said: "I was your friend Ian and you did that to these kids."

She added that she felt she could no longer be friends with him The trial continues.