Allegations of Abuse in NZ
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	The Press October 23 2008 Stewart family keeps faith by Martin van Beynen The family of Christchurch businessman Peter Stewart says it remains committed to proving his innocence. The Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed Stewart's bid to have his sex convictions overturned. Stewart, 62, the son of Christchurch plastics magnate Sir Robertson Stewart and husband of New Zealand Fashion Week owner Pieter Stewart, was jailed in February for 3 1/2 years. He is serving his sentence in Rolleston Prison. Last December, he was convicted on five charges of indecency with a girl, and one count of sodomy and one of rape. The offences occurred between 1967 and 1974. In the Court of Appeal, counsel for Stewart argued the trial judge, Justice Panckhurst, had wrongly directed the jury and made errors in his summing-up. The Appeal Court ruled that such errors as had been shown were not material and had not caused a miscarriage of justice. Stewart's brother, Mark Stewart, said yesterday the family would explore all options to fight the convictions. The first ground of appeal was that the trial judge wrongly admitted evidence from two friends of the complainant of lesser sexual offending against them, and then made a mistake in directing the jury on how it could use the evidence. The Appeal Court said, with the directions given by the judge, the jury could "reasonably be expected to deal justly with the evidence of the two friends", which was properly admitted. Stewart's counsel also argued that two other friends of the complainant should not have been allowed to give evidence of the complainant telling them, when they were still at school, of having sexual relations with Stewart. The court said the judge had been right to admit the evidence because the defence had implied the complainant had invented the allegations recently. It said the judge could have provided a stronger warning to the jury of convicting after so long a period but, overall, no miscarriage of justice had occurred.