IN order to sexually abuse three of his students, a Sydney music teacher fostered close ties with the boys' families and was active within their church groups, a court was told today.

Once he had gained their parents' trust, Neal Richard Winter created opportunities to spend time alone with his alleged victims, crown prosecutor John Bowers told the Downing Centre District Court.

Mr Bowers alleged Winter's method "involved ingratiating himself into their families and indeed into the lives of these three adolescent males solely for the purpose of ... engaging in sexual activity with them".

He was treated as a member of their extended families, Mr Bowers said, and "through his contact with them the accused deliberately established ongoing sexually intimate relationships with each of these three boys".

As his trial began today, Mr Winter, 48, pleaded not guilty to 32 charges including 19 counts of homosexual intercourse with a male aged between 10 and 18 years, and 10 counts of aggravated indecent assault.

Mr Winter, who taught at the exclusive private boys' school Trinity Grammar, allegedly indecently assaulted a 14-year-old boy four times during 1992.

He also is accused of having regular sexual intercourse with another student over a five-year period, beginning in 1993 when the child was 12 years old.

The boy kept the sex a secret because Mr Winter had told him he knew someone who could "make people disappear" by putting them in an acid bath, Mr Bowers told the court.

A third alleged victim, aged 14, felt sickened by the sexual activity in which he was involved for four years but trusted Mr Winter "because he was an authority figure", Mr Bowers said.

The jury heard the 32 charges were representative of the sexual acts committed during Mr Winter's ongoing contact with the boys, which began when he gave them private music lessons at his homes at suburban Villawood, Chester Hill and Regents Park.

One teen was allegedly abused at a church camp, on a holiday during which Mr Winter acted as his chaperone and at his home while his mother was asleep.

And when the teenagers eventually tried to cut off contact, Mr Winter "wouldn't accept it – he tried to keep the boys under his control so that he could continue sexual activity with them", Mr Bowers said.

He said Mr Winter had allegedly admitted his sexual relationship with one of the boys to Anglican church ministers in 2001, telling them he was "devastated" when it ended.

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