Emotions ran high during closing arguments in the trial of a 53-year old teacher charged with sexually exploiting seven of his former primary school students.

In her closing, defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher told the jury the defence was not trying to cast the seven young complainants in a bad light.

However, she said, the case was an issue of credibility: "Who am I going to believe?"

Agreeing a case involving the sexual molestation of children was a disgusting thing, Ms Christopher cautioned the jury. "It's very easy to feel sympathy towards those who prosecute or give evidence in such a case," she said, adding in reference to her client: "Be careful you do not punish the innocent.

"In that jury room you have to be brutal," she said later. "You have seven beautiful children here, you want to validate them." However, she said, evidence should not be accepted just for validation. "You have to weigh it up and give a true verdict."

Rehashing discrepancies in the children's testimony, she said: "Seven girls telling implausible stories does not make those stories more plausible... If you take them out of their 'memorised zone' they don't really remember too much.

"Children, I think, may get a bit confused about what they have seen, heard, or thought happened."

Ms Christopher also talked about collusion amongst the complainants. "All these children are intertwined," she said. "You can never be satisfied so you are sure that there is no collusion between these witnesses."

She noted that none of the children's parents had noticed their child acting strangely around the time of the alleged incidents, that the most senior Police officer investigating the case had not been called to the stand, and that children these days know a lot more about "certain things.

"I don't think we had in this courtroom seven evil girls, as (Crown counsel) Mr. (Juan) Wolffe tried to say we're saying," she said.

Mr. Wolffe, however, asserted to the jury that was exactly what the defence was saying. "Part of the defence is to discredit the testimony of these girls," he said.

"Police are lying, I'm lying, those girls are lying - everyone's out to get poor old (defendant). Those girls got together in some room and said: 'Let's get (him).' They sat around at eight years old and plotted... 'You go to the Police tomorrow, you cry in court, you act solid, that'll be a good thing.'

"Absurd," he said.

Considering the man's role as a teacher, Mr. Wolffe said: "That catapults this offence into a whole new realm: the element of trust."

Over time, he said, children will let their guard down with caretakers such as teachers. "These girls had trust in (the defendant)... That makes it all the more easy for him to get away with what he was doing."

He told the jury that during the "rather intimidating" cross-examinations of the children by Ms Christopher the children "looked her straight in the eyes and answered".

"I take my hat off to (one of the complainants) that she was able to punch this man in the stomach and run away," he continued. "More power to her. (Another complainant) didn't have that personality. Unfortunately it got to the point where (the defendant) did pull her pants down and rub her vagina. He did rub her chest.

"(This complainant) is the culmination of all the other girls went through. She was (herself) and there is nothing wrong with that."

Regarding another complainant, Mr. Wolffe said: "These are still little girls. You saw her come in her clutching her doll... If it happened to me I'd be a slobbering fool but she stood there even while she was crying and said: 'This is what happened to me.' I respect that.

"All these girls, they have to live with this for the rest of their natural lives. That's the saddest thing," he said.

"Let them know what they did was not in vain. Let them know that everything is going to be alright."

Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons will sum up the case for the jury tomorrow morning, after which they will begin deliberations.