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.