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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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Mary Wilson A packed public gallery at the
Wellington District Court erupted into clapping today when a judge threw out
the case of a teacher charged with rape saying that the man was a victim of a
young girls make believe. The 43 year old whose name has been permanently
suppressed was facing five charges including two of raping a seven year old
pupil ten years ago. Our Court
Reporter Ann-Marie May says the accused had a huge number of supporters with
him. Ann-Marie May His wife was there. He had a sister there
from elsewhere, his mother, one of his daughters and lots and lots of
colleagues from the teaching profession and family and friends all there and
when this decision was made by the judge they clapped. The judge took a brief
adjournment. There was lots and lots of hugs and just general emotion that
this man was a free man. As someone said later it's not just that he was
acquitted as he would be by a jury. This means that it's like it never ever
happened. Mary Wilson Tell us more then about what the judge
said? Ann-Marie May Well he said that the defence case was one
of the best presented he had ever seen and he said that as each plank of the
defence case was nailed up he became increasingly of the view that the
verdict of guilty was unlikely, that it would be inconceivable, it would be
impossible and fourthly it would be plainly wrong. Put bluntly if the jury
convicted the accused he was totally satisfied that a miscarriage of justice
would have occurred. Now he talked about some of the things that were raised.
One of these rapes was alleged to have happened in a corridor and he said
that various witnesses gave evidence that that corridor was used by all and
sundry - pupils staff teachers the whole works and also the second rape was
supposed to have taken place in a room in the classroom A little adjacent
sort of room at the back of the classroom, but he said that in fact the
classroom was open plan. There was no such area. With regard to the time to
commit the crimes one of them was alleged to have occurred on a day a student
teacher was there watching this man and how he taught his classes. He also
said that things like the allegations of physical abuse - kicking and striking couldn't have gone on
unobserved by other people. Now he talked about the complainant, this girl.
He said there must be a strong suspicion here that the complainant who as a
child had a fondness for make believe, witchcraft and fantasy stories has
come to believe in her own fantasy that these events actually occurred. Mary Wilson Did he say anything about why the
prosecution was taken in the first place? Ann-Marie May He said, Mary, that at the end of the
Crown case there was a small chance that a conviction could be entered. But
he said by the end of the defence case it was just totally getting into
miscarriage of justice area and that's why he took it from the jury. Mary Wilson You've said there was clapping from
the gallery when the decision was announced. How did the teacher respond? Ann-Marie May To be honest Mary, there was an indication
last night that this was possibly the way things would go. He was just
absolutely rapt I think to be gone. He wouldn't make a comment. I think he
looked very very tired. He was actually clutching his copy of the book Catch
22 which kind of ironic given the situation he found himself in. Mary Wilson What is the future for him now then? Ann-Marie May He wouldn't talk about that. I understand just from some of the things
I heard in the court that it may be difficult for him to go back. One
imagines that he was described a spontaneous sort of man who reacted well with
the children but I would pick that just from my own knowledge of human nature
you would always be on your guard having been through this sort of thing once
and maybe a return to the classroom wont be for him. Mary Wilson What's his lawyer saying then? Ann-Marie May His lawyer didn't say a lot today except
that he indicated that the defence will be applying for costs against the
Crown. He's got 28 days to file that application and the accused has
permanent name suppression so this is all behind him There is no record,
nothing to connect him with anything like this Mary Wilson That's our Court Reporter Ann Marie
May. The police are standing by their decision to prosecute the teacher. They
say that they had medical evidence and the defence conceded at a preliminary
hearing that there was a case to answer |
