http://www.stuff.co.nz/4748791a6011.html

Southland Times
November 4 2008

Boy told truth in court, mother says
by Evan Harding

Not the verdict they hoped for. One of the boys at the centre of allegations against an Invercargill schoolteacher, with his mother yesterday. The teacher was found not guilty.

A boy who accused an Invercargill schoolteacher of doing indecent acts on him told the truth in court, his mother believes.

New River Primary School teacher Paul Conner was last week found not guilty on charges of doing indecent acts on two former pupils.

The mother of one of the boys at the centre of the allegations said yesterday she believed the truth had been told by both boys when they testified against Mr Conner in the Invercargill District Court.

"We didn't get the verdict we hoped for but my son is quite proud he got to tell his story," the boy's mother said from her Invercargill home yesterday.

After sitting through the seven-day trial she said she was disappointed with the verdicts, but not angry.

"I was surprised because I thought it would go the other way."

She said her son had been returning to his old self in the the past few weeks. He was coming out of his shell and had given her lots of kisses and hugs. "He still believes in himself and that's the main thing," she said.

Mr Conner told The Southland Times on Saturday the allegations had destroyed his life. He had spent his teaching career trying to help children, and the allegations made by the two boys aged from 11 to 13 were the only ones against him in 22 years of teaching, he said.

Mr Conner's lawyer Philip McDonald, said during the trial the boys had got together and made up the story about Mr Conner, who had disciplined them for their bad behaviour in class when he had taught them.

The boys had said Mr Conner touched their private parts and rubbed up against them during a hide-and-seek game when they visited his Bainfield Rd property near Invercargill at different times.

The jury took less than four hours to reach a verdict acquitting Mr Conner of all four charges.