A teacher once demonstrated how he had sex with a watermelon, a former student told the Sudbury man’s sex trial on Tuesday.

"We started having conversations about pornography and stuff," the now 19-year-old man recalled while testifying at Damir Bulic’s Superior Court trial. "He showed me what he did with the watermelon. He had sex with it. He took a knife, cut a hole and had sex with it …

"I was three, four feet away. It was kind of weird … It was pretty out of the blue that he did that. There was no indication he was going to do that."

The student said the sex happened when he was alone at the Bulic home near the end of the school year or early summer in 2011.

Bulic, 46, who is not in custody, is facing four counts of performing an indecent act and one count of invite sexual touching, all allegedly involving the same male minor from Sept. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2011, in southern Ontario.

The alleged indecent acts include exposing genitals to and masturbation in front of the teen.

After the incident with the watermelon, the student said he and Bulic put some steaks on the barbecue and had a smoke and beer, something they frequently did. He said the incident did not affect his friendship with Bulic, as "I never really thought of it at that age."

The student said another masturbation incident occurred in a bush area near a ball field. He said Bulic sat on the hood of a vehicle and masturbated while he videotaped the act using either his Blackberry or Bulic’s phone.

"He was on the car, sitting on the hood of the car," recalled the man. "It was suppertime, the evening. We were blocked by trees and bushes."

When asked what his reaction was, the former student said it was weird, but did not impact on the friendship he had with Bulic.

"It kept me saying ‘this is more than just hanging out with a teacher,’" he said. "We never told each other we were ‘besties’ … I did assume he did trust me in doing these acts. He saw me as a trustworthy person, I guess."

On the trial’s first day, the student’s mother testified Bulic crossed the line when he purchased a one-way ticket worth $1,836 for her son to join him and his family on a vacation to Croatia in the summer of 2011. The boy’s parents did not let their son go.

During cross-examination Tuesday by defence lawyer Breese Davies, the mother was asked if she felt the Croatian trip invite was odd.

"At the time, I did. I did think it was very strange," the mother said.

Asked if she felt more was going on between her son and Bulic than she knew, the mother said she did.

"I started to think this is becoming a very strange situation," she said, her voice starting to break. "(My son) adored the man. It was very hard as a mom to have my brain thinking that way. We trusted him with (our son) 100 per cent. I kept saying no, no (to bad thoughts), but over the years, my gut told me different."

The mother said her son, when questioned, said nothing sexual ever happened with Bulic. But after the discovery of a carton of cigarettes under their shed in the late spring of 2012, the son said Bulic gave him the smokes. She said Bulic later denied it in a heated argument outside a Tim Hortons restaurant. At that point, she and her husband told Bulic to leave their son alone.

In early 2013, following an incident at high school, the woman testified she met with the principal and brought up her son’s relationship with Bulic, which she felt had helped produce her son’s improper behaviour.

When asked by Davies if she brought up the Bulic relationship to try and deflect negative attention away from her son, the mother said she did not.

About that time, Greater Sudbury Police officers talked to the mother and her son about Bulic, but no charges were laid as nothing criminal was found to have occurred.

However, in November 2016 at the family home, the court heard the son and his girlfriend were talking and the girlfriend told the mother the son had something to disclose to her about his relationship with Bulic.

"I didn’t encourage him," said the mother. "(The girlfriend) and him were talking amongst themselves. I stayed at the other end of the table. I didn’t say a word … He asked (the girlfriend) to talk to me. She said ‘it’s OK, you can talk to your mom.’"

The mother said that’s when she learned about the watermelon incident. She also learned about a video that showed a woman giving Bulic oral sex, and that during a trip to Bulic’s camp on Manitoulin Island in June 2011, the son was driving when he went into the ditch.

Asked if she was horrified at her son’s new information, the mother said she was. The mother also said it confirmed what her gut had been telling her all along.

"It did confirm because I didn’t know what had happened," she said. "I just knew something had happened, but not what."

The mother and the son then gave new statements to police in late 2016.

Davies asked the mother if, upon learning that her son told police Bulic was driving and masturbating when the motor vehicle accident occurred, she was worried her son would be called a liar and that he should change his statement.

The mother said she did not tell him to do that.

"I just told him he had nothing to be embarrassed about," she said.

"You would be concerned if the police, this court, thought (your son) was lying?" asked Davies.

"He was 13 at the time," said the mother. "This has been very difficult for all of us."

Davies then asked the mother if she wanted Bulic to be convicted. After a pause, the woman said yes.

"You want him to go to jail?" continued Davies, to which the mother answered no.

"You want him to lose his job?" asked Davies.

The mother said yes.

"You want his life to be a living nightmare?" continued Davies.

"I believe his life is a living nightmare already," said the mother. "That’s not what I’m about."

The trial continues Wednesday.

hcarmichael@postmedia.com

Twitter: @haroldCarmichae