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peterellis Home / abuse allegations / Peter Stewart Peter Stewart - News Reports - Page 2 |
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Stuff Prominent Canterbury businessman Peter Maxwell Stewart's bid to overturn his convictions on historical sex abuse charges has been rejected by the Court of Appeal. His convictions by a High Court jury in Christchurch last December stand. The jury found him guilty of five charges of indecency with a child under 12 years, one count of sodomy, and one count of rape. The sex offending dated back up to 40 years, and led to a three-and-a-half year jail sentence. Stewart appealed on the grounds that the trial was unfair, but the appeal was today dismissed by Justices Baragwanath, Wild and Heath in a 38-page appeal court judgment. He had appealed on the grounds that the trial judge, Justice Graham Panckhurst, erred in admitting, and then in directing, the jury about how it could use evidence from friends of the complainant about lesser sexual offending against them. Stewart's defence counsel also said the judge should not have permitted the prosecution to present in re-examination prior out-of-court statements made by witnesses, and erred in the directions given as to how they might be used, especially the lack of any warning as to reliability. Counsel also said the judge should have given the jury a stronger warning of the danger of convicting after so long a period. The judgment cites evidence from other young witnesses that Stewart had also touched them. The appeal court judges said they had examined the summing-up with care. Subject to challenges discussed in the judgment, they said it covered "all topics required to inform the jury as to their task and makes plain the nature of the defence case as it does that of the Crown''. "We consider that given the total context of the summing up, with its directions as to onus and standard of proof, the error would not have misled the jury. "Nor do we consider that, taken as a whole, there is any imbalance in the directions, which made clear to the jury both their legal obligations and, as we have noted, the nature of the defence.'' Stewart is a son of industrialist Sir Robertson Stewart, who died in August 2007, aged 93. Stewart's wife is fashion queen Pieter Stewart, managing director of New Zealand Fashion Week. The couple have four adult children. |
