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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
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Jury gives up after six hours A man accused of having
sex with a 14-year-old girl is to face a new trial after a jury in the
Dunedin District Court could not reach a verdict. The jury hearing the
trial of 28-year-old Stephen Joseph Walker on two charges of unlawful sexual
intercourse retired to consider the charges at 10.30am yesterday. They returned to court
to have some evidence read back but at 3.30pm told Judge Gary MacAskill they
were unable to agree. The judge said it was
important they try to decide the matter and sent them back to the jury room
to continue deliberating. The jurors returned with a question about 20
minutes later, before informing the judge at 4.30pm they were unable to reach
a decision. Judge MacAskill
discharged the jurors and ordered a new trial for Walker, who was remanded in
custody until next Friday for the setting of a new hearing date. Walker denied having
sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old complainant at Rakaia on or about
July 10 last year, and in Dunedin on more than one occasion, between July 11
and the end of August. Although the
complainant said in evidence her statement to the police was not true, and
although another young woman told the court she had lied under oath at
depositions, Crown counsel Robin Bates said there was sufficient indirect
(circumstantial) evidence for the jury to find the charges proved. There was also the
evidence of a male friend of the girl who said Walker had told him he and the
girl had had sex, Mr Bates said. But defence counsel
Anne Stevens argued the girl had liked Walker and wanted a sexual
relationship with him, but that he rejected her because of her age and she
then made a complaint to the police. And she cautioned the
jury about convicting Walker on the evidence of the two girls who, she said,
were liars, with one admitting she had lied under oath. |
