Teacher raped student on desk, court told

A teacher raped an eight-year-old female student on a desk in a WA primary school as part of years of increasingly serious sexual abuse, a court has been told.

Alexander Ian McCook, 70, went on trial at in District Court today charged with sexually abusing two girls between 1997 and 2002 while he was teacher at a primary school in the Wheatbelt region.

The two girls, who did not know each other, both claim Mr McCook groomed them with elevating levels of inappropriate touching before raping them.

The youngest was just four when the alleged abuse of her began, the court was told.

Prosecutor Brett Tooker said Mr McCook was a teacher at the school from 1990, and in 1997 began taking a sexual interest in one of his Year 3 pupils.

The victim, who is now 24, told police Mr McCook began his abuse by touching her over her clothes, then inside her underwear and eventually raped her in the pre-primary room of the school.

He raped her again soon after on a desk in a classroom.

The second girl alleges she was abused repeatedly between 2000 and 2002.

"These are two women who share a common story - they are remarkable similar stories, although they are not related to each other and are not known to each other," Mr Tooker told the jury.

The trial will be played a conversation the younger victim had with Mr McCook which she secretly recorded on her phone, which the prosecution claim amounts to an admission.

But defence lawyer Gary Rodgers said his client denied all 13 charges of indecent dealing with a child and sexual penetration of a child.

The trial, before Justice John Staude, is set to last seven days.