The Southland Times
October 22 2008

Accused teacher performed indecent acts on girl, says boy

An Invercargill schoolteacher accused of playing slavery games with two boys and performing indecent acts on them had done the same thing with a girl, a jury was told yesterday.

Paul Alexander Conner, whose 42nd birthday is today, is standing trial in the Invercargill District Court on one charge of performing an indecent act on an 11-year-old boy and four charges of doing indecent acts on another boy aged between 11 and 13.

The Crown alleges Conner played slavery games with the boys at different times on his farm.

The game involved a hide-and-seek scenario with toy guns and when Conner caught them he would loosely tie them up, touch their private parts when frisking them for weapons, lay them down on a mat in a barn and rub up against them, the jury was told.

Conner has denied all five charges.

The boy alleging Conner performed four indecent acts on him said yesterday he had also seen Conner rub himself against a girl on his property.

 She had played the game with them and was loosely tied up at the time, the boy said.

 The girl was a friend of the boy's but she no longer wanted to go to Conner's Bainfield Rd farm, he said.

The boy said when Conner had offended against him he had talked ``real slavish'',  saying things like ``you think you are so awesome, eh? You think you can get away from me''?

Under cross-examination by Conner's lawyer Philip McDonald, the boy admitted Conner had not played the game with him on the last occasion he had been at his farm, despite earlier saying he had done so.

Mr McDonald earlier suggested to the 11-year-old complainant that he and the second boy had made up the story about Conner, who had taught both of them at New River Primary School.

Both boys had behaved badly in his class at times, with Conner disciplining them in ways that included forcing them to sit at the front of the class with hands on head or sending them out of the classroom, the jury heard.

 Mr McDonald said to the 11-year-old: ``For some reason you have made up this nasty story about what's gone on at the barn ... and you have added bits to it, for example, him looking at you and the other boys in the showers (on a school camp),'' Mr McDonald said.

The boy said he was telling the truth.

The trial is expected to end on Friday.