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The Press
Sunday Star-Times Sex-abuse charges: Peter Stewart arrives at court for an
earlier hearing. Christchurch's high-society
Stewart family is standing staunchly by Peter Maxwell Stewart, who has been
named as the prominent Canterbury man found guilty of historical sex-abuse
charges. Stewart, 62, the son of
Christchurch plastics magnate Sir Robertson Stewart, who died in August, is
married to the owner and managing director of New Zealand Fashion Week,
Pieter Stewart. They have four adult children. The wider Stewart family, now led
by Adrienne, Lady Stewart, has played a major role in Christchurch affairs
and is a generous benefactor of many causes, including the arts and Christ
Church Cathedral. Although the Stewart family was
not making an official comment yesterday, a close friend of the family, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Press that family and friends
of Peter and Pieter Stewart would "stick by them through thick and
thin". "Anybody who knows Peter and
Pieter well just cannot believe he would do these things," she said. "He's just not that sort of
guy. I've never, ever believed it. He is a kind, very thoughtful man. It's
just insane." The Stewarts were devastated about
having the family name dragged through the mud but were determined to fight
on, she said. Pieter Stewart's New Zealand
Fashion Week business is heavily dependent on sponsors and is expected to be
the most vulnerable to bad publicity. However, main sponsor Air New Zealand
said yesterday it remained committed to its sponsorship. John Durning, principal of
Christchurch firm Durning Public Relations, said Peter Stewart's lack of involvement
in Fashion Week and the distance between his business affairs and those of
his wife made fallout among sponsors extremely unlikely. The Stewarts would be going
through a terrible time, but many families weathered similar shocks without
their general good name suffering, he said. A public relations consultant
close to Christchurch's network of movers and shakers said the Stewarts were
a powerful but down-to-earth family who had done a great deal for the city,
and she had detected no "malicious glee" over their predicament. "People genuinely feel a deep
sadness about the whole thing. The Stewart family have a good reputation and
people don't want to see it tarnished because of this," she said. The Stewarts had provided
thousands of jobs for Cantabrians and "I'm just glad Sir Robertson is
not alive to see it is because it's pretty shocking", said a businessman
who knows the family well. Members of the complainant's
family, including her brother and her elderly mother, were in court to see
the suppression lifted yesterday, but declined to comment. "Maybe in a
few weeks," a spokesman said. The complainant cannot be
identified but she was closely involved with the Stewart family from a young
age. Facing a jail sentence of about four years, Stewart will be home for
Christmas. Justice Panckhurst, in the High
Court in Christchurch yesterday, remanded Stewart on bail to February 12 for
sentencing and directed the preparation of a reparation report if counsel
thought it was warranted. Counsel for Stewart, Jonathan
Eaton, told the court he was not seeking permanent suppression of Stewart's
name because it was now well-known Stewart was the "so-called prominent
Canterbury man" convicted of sex charges. Eaton did not pursue a previous
argument that publication of Stewart's name would impact on other Stewart
family business interests. Stewart was found guilty on
December 7 by a jury on one charge of sodomy, one of rape, three of indecent
assault and two of inducing an indecent act. He was acquitted on five other
charges, and three charges were dropped during the trial. The complainant alleged the
offending, between 1967 and 1978, had started when she was eight and
continued until her late teens. Stewart never worked for any
length of time in the family business, PDL Industries, which his father took
over in 1957. Sir Robertson built the business, which was strong in
exporting, to an annual turnover of about $350 million. It was sold to French
firm Schneider Electric in 2001, with the Stewart family receiving $97m. Stewart, the second son of his
father's first marriage, to Gladys Stewart, went almost straight from school
to his own farm in Hawarden, where he stayed until the late 1960s. He met his wife, whose family
owned the Zetland Hotel in Cashel Street, in central Christchurch, at the
races in 1967, and they were married a year later. |
