A former Teslin woman has pleaded not guilty to a number of sex-related charges dating back to the 1980s.

Janet Bolton entered the pleas this morning in Yukon Supreme Court before her trial began.

She maintains she is innocent of seven charges, ranging from sexual assault to buggery to invitation to sexual touching to sexual interference. Justice Leigh Gower is hearing the case.

The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, took the stand this morning and was questioned by Crown prosecutor Ludovic Gouaillier.

Over the course of an hour and a half, the complainant, now in his 30s, told the court of sexual abuse that started with fondling when he was about six or seven and progressed to intercourse as he got older. The last incident allegedly happening when he was about 11 or 12.

He spoke of a number of incidents that occurred when he would be left alone with Bolton. It was "maybe a month or two” after the first incident that the abuse went beyond fondling to intercourse as well as oral sex, he told the court.

The last time it happened, he said, was when he was about 11 and Bolton was babysitting. He said he came down the stairs to ask her if he could watch TV, and Bolton told him to climb into bed with her, where she asked him to "go down on her.”

"And that's what I did,” he said.

In the years that followed, he said, he began drinking more and more. Having had his first drink at the age of 10, he liked how numb it made him feel to everything.

"I felt pretty useless at that age,” he said, pointing to his upbringing, and the alleged abuse he suffered at the hands of Bolton and another person.

Crying on the stand, he said: "These people were supposed to protect me.”

Taking his glasses off and wiping his eyes with Kleenex, he continued to note the alcohol problems he had for years.

At 15, he was sent to detox. He also found himself in trouble with the law, for breaking into places to get booze, for fighting and for underage drinking.

Acknowledging that alcohol can still be problematic, he said he's been sober for one year, and prior to that, had spent five years without a drink.

The man went on to state that when he was around 15, he had talked to a friend about abuse one night when they were drinking. His friend said he had had similar problems with Bolton, though the friend did not go into detail about what happened.

It was three years ago, he said, when he first went to authorities about Bolton. Tired of drinking, he said he wanted to change his life and deal with the issues now instead of more years down the road.

A year ago, a family meeting was arranged to see if the matter could be dealt with outside of the courts, he said. He only agreed to the meeting after he was told Bolton, in town from Alberta for her first court appearance, agreed to his condition that she explain why she abused him and apoligize.

It was at that meeting, he said, that Bolton told him about some of the things that happened to her when she was younger.

While he could not remember her exact words, he said when they were left alone, she pretty much said she was sorry for what had happened and hoped that it wouldn't tear the family apart.

He told her he could forgive her, he testified, but that he had to bring forward formal charges in order to deal with it and have a better future.

Though he had been more than willing to go through an alternative measure to court such as circle court, he hadn't been approached by anyone about it since and wasn't sure what had happened to that alternative.

He was scheduled to be cross-examined by Bolton's lawyer, Andre Roothman, when court resumed this afternoon.