The Press
April 7, 1998
Sex-case acquittal
Observers in the public gallery clapped as a Christchurch District Court jury
found a male nurse not guilty of sexually abusing a teenaged hospital patient over
three years in the 1970s.
The defendant, whose name is suppressed, shook in the dock and thanked the
judge as he was acquitted on one representative and two specific charges of
indecency between males and one specific charge of sodomy.
The complainant said he was sent to the hospital in 1976 and was abused by the
defendant on numerous occasions until leaving in 1979.
He remained silent until revisiting the hospital, which was now used to treat
alcoholics and drug addicts, stirred up memories of the alleged abuse.
In a videotaped interview with the police the defendant described the
allegations against him as "fabricated lies'' and "just a lot of
bloody rubbish''. He did not give evidence.
Hamish Evans, defending, said the complainant was both dishonest and violent,
with convictions for raping an elderly woman in 1987 and others for assaulting
women.
He accused the complainant of "concocting this whole story … out of
revenge'' and of making good a threat in the 1970s to get the defendant.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning its verdicts.