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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
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A police officer
accused of sexually violating a woman prisoner in Tauranga police station
cells was grilled by the prosecution yesterday about what he was doing in the
female shower area. Crown prosecution
Jonathan Temm questioned the movements of Senior Constable Fredrick John
Follas around the cell block at Tauranga Police Station on the morning of
February 5 last year. In the High Court at
Rotorua Follas has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual violation by
unlawful sexual connection. Follas is alleged to
have sexually violated the prisoner, first with a cake of soap and then with
his hand, while she was taking a shower in the female section of the cell
block. Mr Temm asked Follas,
who was watchhouse dayshift supervisor on February 5, why he returned to the
shower block that day after he had already made a mental note to be careful
of the woman's behaviour. The jury earlier heard
that two days before her the complaint of sexual misconduct, the woman
allegedly danced a jig in front of Follas and asked if he had "time for
a quickie". Follas said that he had
made a decision not to return to the female cell block unless he knew the
woman was fully dressed. But that morning the
woman asked him for a cake of soap. When he got back to the shower, the woman
had undressed and was wearing a towel. Follas said that he was
annoyed by her behaviour and, after he checked the water temperature at her
request, left the room to make tea or coffee for the prisoners. "Ten minutes
earlier she had annoyed you, compromised you, now you're getting her
coffee?", Mr Temm asked. "If I was to stay
angry with everybody in the cell block who annoyed me, the job wouldn't get
done," Follas responded. Follas said he felt
"disappointed and angry" when he was told the sexual violation
complaint had been laid against him. When he was asked by
his defence counsel if there was anything else he wanted to add, he
reiterated his innocence to the jury. "Simply to
reaffirm my original denial. Everything I did I acted totally professionally
with this woman throughout my dealings with her." The trial continues
next week. |
