A woman has claimed she had a sexual affair as a teenager with her ‘Prince Charming’ teacher at a “cult” ballet school.
The 33-year-old claimed she almost felt brainwashed when she attended the school in Argyll and Bute between 2006 and 2009. She said she was vulnerable when she entered a “relationship” at 16 years old with Jonathan Barton.
The woman claimed she received private dance lessons where she kissed “charismatic” Barton who also gave her a “lingering touch”. She recalled Barton sneaking her into his bedroom which started a sexual relationship between the pair which lasted around eight months.
The woman claimed they would meet once or twice a month when his then girlfriend, who also lived and worked there, was away.
Barton, 41, is on trial at Dumbarton Sheriff Court accused of a total of 10 sexual offences against nine students. Barton, of Oban, is accused of having sex with two students which court papers state is a “breach of trust”. The charges span between September 2004 and July 2019. The alleged victims were females aged between 16 and 18.
The woman, who has since gone on to own her own ballet school, claimed she did not get on with other girls at the dance school and that she opened up to Barton about her struggles. She said Barton was “really supportive” and advised her to keep going.
The woman claimed she was lonely and texted Barton who had become “flirty” during the extra lessons. The witness stated Barton later moved her into a flat inside the main dancing school where he and others resided.
She said she first kissed Barton on a couch in her bedroom which made her feel “like I had someone who understood what I had been through”.
The woman stated the pair entered a relationship in October or November 2006 until June 2007.
Prosecutor Dana Barclay asked the witness about her use of the term ‘relationship’.
She replied: “I did when I was 16. Now I look back, I don’t know what it was. At 16, I thought I was meeting my Prince Charming who I thought was saving the day for me.”
Miss Barclay: “You considered yourself having a relationship at 16?” The witness: “Yes.”
The woman recalled an occasion when she was asked to “sneak in” to Barton’s room. She said: “We were lying on his bed and had a conversation and things escalated. We would kiss and ended up having sex.”
The woman stated they cuddled after it and Barton told her to leave through a back terrace attached to his bedroom.
Miss Barclay asked the witness how she felt and she replied: “I felt special, I felt wanted, I was excited. It was as if I was going to have a wonderful relationship with this man who helped me get through this difficult time. I thought I met my Prince Charming.”
Miss Barclay asked the woman if she told anyone about the relationship and she replied: “I didn’t tell them, they just knew.”
The woman told the court the relationship ended when she gave Barton an ultimatum between her and his girlfriend. She claimed Barton would tell her it was not the “right time”.
The private lessons stopped after the relationship was over and the woman left the ballet school early in 2009 after breaking her ankle during a production.
She said she contacted the police about Barton after having a child of her own.
The woman said: “As soon I had a child, my little boy, I just felt like the only way to describe it, as the school is so out the way, is almost a bubble or a cult. You are just brainwashed into that bubble up there.”
The woman later stated Barton “took me at a vulnerable time”.
Gary McAteer, defending, asked the witness about calling the school a cult. She replied: “It felt like a cult. That’s how I felt, that’s how I describe it to someone who had never been up there.”
Detective constable Rachel McPyke, 27, read a statement that a 21-year-old woman gave to her in 2021. She stated that Barton was her teacher who would give her corrections “regularly” to improve her positions. The woman stated she felt Barton put “hands on me for too long” and that his body touched hers.
She claimed Barton stood behind her and that his legs touched her legs adding: “He would place his arms around my torso reaching my shoulder. He would have an arm over my chest and leave it where it laid. If it was on my breast, he would leave it where it laid. It didn’t make me feel uneasy until I think about it now.”
The woman added that Barton also kept his hand close to an intimate area of her body. She also told police that the length of time he spent close with her “was something he did for sexual pleasure”.
The trial continues before Sheriff William Gallacher.