The parents of a martial arts expert accused of abusing underage schoolgirls in West Fife have given evidence in his defence.

Gary Lee Goodrum’s father Colin, 64, and his mum Jeanette, 65, took to the witness box to refute suggestions from one girl that she stayed with the family for a year, claiming she was only with them for a month. 

His parents also rejected the girl’s claims that Goodrum’s dad had knocked on the accused’s bedroom door in the middle of the night to tell them to keep the noise down while they were having sex.

The jury has heard evidence that the accused indecently assaulted a 15-year-old with a set of nunchuck sticks and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old by grabbing her breasts. 

The trial at the High Court in Livingston was also told that he groped and performed sex acts with a series of teenage girls in his car and at the Gary Lee Martial Arts Academy he ran in Dalgety Bay, at an annexe of Inverkeithing High School and at other addresses in Fife.

His father, a retired operations director, insisted that the girl allegedly involved in the nunchucks incident had left school and was therefore over 16 when she came to stay at their then home in Dalgety Bay.

Mr Goodrum rejected the girl’s claim that she’d stayed in his house for about a year as “totally inaccurate”.

He told the jury: “She was going through some significant issues family wise. Her mother had abandoned her because she got divorced. The father was living in the Middle East. She was living with her sister who she had problems with.”

He said she had no money and inadequate clothing, but they fed her and his wife took care of her clothing needs.

He added: “The agreement was she’d stay until her father came back from the Middle East and collected her.”

He said that happened four weeks after her arrival.

Mr Goodrum said two of the complainers who claimed to have visited their family home at The Spinneys had never been in the house.

He confirmed that a third complainer had attended Gary’s wedding.

Under cross-examination by advocate depute Stephen McCloy, Mr Goodrum insisted that most of his three sons’ friends in the late 90’s and early 2000s had been male.

He said the only exceptions were the boys’ girlfriends. He added: “I lived there. I would have known if groups of girls came to the house.”

Mrs Goodrum, a qualified nurse and stress counsellor, also testified that the girl who claimed she’d been indecently assaulted with a martial arts weapon had stayed with them for just four weeks.

She said: “She was in a not very happy position. Her mother didn’t want her, her father was away, she didn’t get on with her sister and she wasn’t getting fed.

“Whatever she needed I had to buy for her. I bought her underwear because she didn’t have any.”

Asked if the complainer had become ‘part of the family’ for the duration of her stay she replied: “Yes.”

After the four weeks passed, she said the girl’s father – who worked in Saudi Arabia – came to the house and picked her up.

Mr McCloy asked: “Did she express thanks to you?”

She answered: “Yes. She gave me a nice letter thanking me for all the help that I’d given her during her stay.”

She said she later accepted a friend request from the girl on Facebook and got a message from her asking how she was, but she said she did not respond.

Goodrum, 38, of Corsiehill, Perth, is charged with seven counts of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour towards underage girls in Dalgety Bay and Inverkeithing between April 1998 and March 2009.

He is also accused of indecently assaulting the 15-year-old girl between 1999 and 2000 and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old kickboxer between May and October 2016.

Goodrum pleads not guilty to the allegations – all made by former students of his martial arts academy.

He told the jury he had “no idea” why eight females – now aged between 15 and 33 – had given evidence that he committed a string of sexual offences against them.

Judge Lord Woolman adjourned the case for the prosecution and defence to prepare their closing speeches for delivering to the jury on Wednesday.

He warned jurors not to discuss the case in the meantime, adding: “Keep an open mind.”