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The Evening Standard
July 31, 2003
Man found not guilty of rape
by Court Reporter
A Palmerston North District Court jury yesterday found a 39-year-old former
Levin man not guilty on two charges of raping his daughter.
The jury took about four hours to reach its verdict after being sent out by
Judge Phillip Connell about 1pm.
It returned with questions about 3.30pm,
before reaching its verdict a little after 5pm.
Earlier, in counsel closings, defence counsel David Cameron spoke of a
"fundamental flaw" in the prosecution.
The complainant's mother's testimony that the family had been living away
from Levin when the second rape took place was at variance from that of the
girl, who said she had been living in Levin at the time.
The mother's evidence meant the second charge "simply cannot
stand".
The girl must have been lying, he said. "If she was prepared to lie
about the second alleged rape, how can you be sure about her evidence of the
first (alleged) rape?"
Crown prosecutor Katrina Barber presented the jury with two possible
scenarios to explain the allegations, then urged it to dismiss one of them.
She told the jury to accept that the now 14-year-old complainant had been
telling the truth when she gave her evidence, and to reject a suggestion that
the girl had made a false allegation "in cahoots" with her mother.
"This is a desperate attempt to lead you astray from the complainant's
evidence, which is a reliable and honest account."
The girl's evidence had "a sense of reality", while the defence
arguments were "like some bad plot in a soap," Mrs Barber said.
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