We take a look back at Cardinal George Pell’s history of denial in relation to sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

A Catholic priest accused of intimately touching a Brisbane schoolboy and coercing him to strip nude for photos had another student pull down his shorts for the same purpose, a court has heard.

On trial is Michael Ambrose Endicott, 75, who pleaded not guilty to eight historical charges of indecently dealing with a child under 12 and a child under 16 while he worked at Villanova College, a private Catholic boys school in Coorparoo.

The witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court the alleged victim confided details about the abuse while they were housemates in the ’90s.

The alleged victim said the boys were made to commit sexual acts on each other while Endicott photographed them, the witness told the Brisbane District Court trial yesterday.

“I (also) got the impression on more than one occasion that something had happened anally,” she told the court.

The witness said she was only the second person the alleged victim had told about his experiences. He felt sadness and guilt as the recollections flooded back to him during the following weeks, she said.

“He talked about the abuse going on for a number of years,” the witness said.

Mr Endicott was a priest in charge of pastoral care and religious education of children during the 1970s, the court has heard.

Prosecutors believe the abuse of the alleged victim began on a school hiking trip in 1975.

Mr Endicott allegedly asked him to take off his clothes and pose for photographs after taking him to a secluded area along a creek.

Three years later, he again allegedly coerced that boy to strip naked and pose for photographs after luring him into the school’s flag tower.

Mr Endicott is also accused of touching his genitals during an excursion.

The following year at a school sports afternoon, the priest took the boy, who was by then a teenager, into a change room and told him to strip naked and shower while he took photos, prosecutors allege.

Other witnesses, who were students at the school in the ’70s, told the court that being photographed by Mr Endicott became a “badge of honour” and they were asked to either strip or reveal much of their bodies during the private sessions.

The trial continues.