|
|
Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
|
A judge has thrown out
sex charges against a Wellington primary teacher, saying he had found it
"implausible, then unlikely and then impossible" that offences had
been committed. In a rare move,
Wellington District Court judge Bruce Davidson told the jury, who were due to
begin deliberating yesterday, that he was removing the case from them and
discharging the teacher. He invited the jury to
stay to hear his reasons and most remained to see the end of the week-long
case they had been going to decide. The judge granted
permanent name suppression for the teacher and the school he had taught at in
1996, when the offences were alleged to have occurred. The teacher has been
on suspension since his arrest last May. The teacher had denied
two charges of sexual violation by rape, one of indecent assault and two of
assault against a seven-year-old pupil. The Crown alleged he
had raped the pupil in a school corridor and also in a small office in his
classroom. He was supposed to have touched her genitals while she was at his
home. He was also alleged to have kicked her and pushed a couch over her
feet. Judge Davidson said
that as the trial went on he had found it "implausible, then unlikely
and then impossible" that the teacher could have committed the offences
or that the jury could convict him. He said that by the end
of the defence case it was clear it would be unsafe to let the jury
deliberate and possibly convict. Judge Davidson said any
guilty verdict would be a miscarriage of justice and no conviction could have
been regarded as safe. The opportunity for the teacher to have committed the
offences was so limited as to make it impossible. The girl who had made
the allegations had memory issues that were troubling and disturbing and
Judge Davidson said there was a strong suspicion that she had come to believe
in her own fantasy. Released from the dock,
the teacher was hugged by his wife and called out "yeehah" to his
supporters. After court the teacher
did not want to comment but his supporters expressed relief at the decision.
It was not known whether the man will return to teaching. |
