http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4745404a19756.html

The Southland Times
October 31 2008

Jury clears Southland sex-accused teacher

An Invercargill primary schoolteacher accused of doing indecent acts on two former pupils was cleared by a jury yesterday.

But moments after the verdicts were handed down, 42-year-old Paul Alexander Conner acknowledged it would be extremely difficult to resume his 22-year teaching career.

"I think it would be a great risk going back to the teaching situation because I have had these allegations put against me," he said.

The New River Primary schoolteacher was found not guilty of doing an indecent act on an 11-year-old boy and not guilty on three further charges of doing indecent acts on another boy aged between 11 and 13.

The boys had accused Mr Conner of touching their private parts and rubbing himself against them on his Bainfield Rd property.

Following the four not-guilty verdicts handed down in the Invercargill District Court yesterday, Mr Conner closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief in the dock.

The jury had taken fewer than four hours to make its decision at the end of the seven-day trial.

A handful of Mr Conner's family members in the public gallery, including his mother, embraced him.

He told The Southland Times he was "just relieved" and it had been a devastating time for himself and his family.

The allegations had been with him during the past year, he said.

"It's going over and over in your mind."

The president of the Southland Greyhound Racing Club, he said he had received a lot of support, including from the greyhound racing community.

The mother of one of the boys at the centre of the allegations was upset at the verdicts and said she did not agree with the jury's decision.

During the trial, the boys alleging the offences said Mr Conner had played a one-on-one "slavery" game with them at different times on his farm during the school holidays.

They alleged the game involved a hide-and-seek scenario with toy guns and when Mr Conner caught them he would touch their private parts while frisking them for weapons, loosely tie them up and lead them to a barn where he rubbed himself against them.

Mr Conner denied ever touching the boys inappropriately or rubbing against them.

He said he had played a hide-and-seek type of game with the boys during mid-morning breaks from work they were doing on the farm. He had frisked the boys for weapons but never touched their private parts, he said.