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The Dominion Post
Sunday Star-Times APPEALING:
Millionaire convicted rapist Peter Stewart, front, did not receive a fair
trial and is the victim of a miscarriage of justice, the Court of Appeal has
been told. Millionaire convicted rapist Peter Stewart did not receive a fair trial and is the victim of a miscarriage of justice, the Court of Appeal has been told. Stewart's lawyer, Paul Davison, QC, used a lengthy submission to tell the court in Wellington yesterday that the trial judge had wrongly allowed prejudicial evidence against his client and that his summing up for the jury was unbalanced. Stewart, 62, the son of electrical goods tycoon Sir Robertson Stewart, was sentenced earlier this year to three and a half years imprisonment on one charge of sodomy, one of rape, three of indecent assault and two of inducing an indecent act. The offences took place between 1967 and 1978 and started when his victim was aged eight and Stewart was 22. Davison challenged the admissibility of evidence and said the judge, Justice Graham Panckhurst, had misdirected the jury on how it should consider the evidence of witnesses who said that they, too, had been indecently touched and propositioned by Stewart which was taken as evidence of Stewart's propensity to offend against young girls. Davison said the judge erroneously admitted evidence and misdirected the jury on how it should treat the evidence of witnesses who reported what the victim had told them. While such evidence could show the victim was credible and reliable, it did not confirm her allegations to repeat lies did not amount to proof. The judge also failed to stop the victim from repeatedly giving irrelevant and prejudicial evidence against Stewart, Davison said. He said the judge's summing up lacked balance and failed to correctly summarise the defence case and therefore the convictions should be quashed and a new trial ordered. Crown lawyer Annabel Markham said Stewart's trial lawyer, Jonathan Eaton, had been able to mount a robust defence and did not raise objections to the judge's alleged errors at the time of the trial. She said evidence was properly admitted and the judge's summing up was careful, thorough and balanced. Justice David Baragwanath, who chaired the three-member Court of Appeal panel yesterday, reserved the court's decision. The victim cannot legally be identified. The names of witnesses in the case have been suppressed, along with evidence which was claimed to be inadmissible. |
