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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse |
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Police investigating a rape claim
against a primary school teacher were "haphazard", failed to take
obvious lines of inquiry, made a premature arrest and were negligent, a judge
has ruled. The teacher, who has permanent
name suppression, was charged with raping a 7-year-old when she was in his
class in 1996. The name of the school is also suppressed. He faced two charges of sexual
violation by rape, one of indecent assault and two of assault when he
appeared in Wellington District Court in June. But in a rare move, Judge Bruce
Davidson told the jury he was withdrawing the case because of the implausibility
of the complaint. And yesterday he awarded the
teacher $30,000 costs. The police did not gather all the
relevant material, he said, and what they did have should have caused
"significant alarm". "Put bluntly, the police may
well have thought twice about continuing with the prosecution," Judge
Davidson said. Police began investigating after
the girl saw the teacher in 2003 and said it "rekindled" the
memories and events of 1996. It took 14 months of investigation, while the
man continued working as a teacher, before he was arrested and charged. But the judge said that during
that time there were "several shortcomings", including a failure to
get plans of the school layout, which would have thrown into doubt the girl's
account of events. Police also failed to interview
the teacher's wife and daughter, did not get public records from the school
and neglected to properly brief a doctor who examined the alleged victim. "I am left with a strong
sense that the police did not have any overall investigation plan,"
Judge Davidson said. "The investigation to my mind
seemed haphazard." It was undoubtedly a reflection of
the significant resourcing problems police investigating sexual abuse claims
faced, he said. While the judge agreed that there
was enough evidence to arrest the man, "there must have been strong
signals that any responsible police officer should proceed with considerable
caution and prudence". The judge ordered the police and
the Ministry of Justice each to pay $15,000 to the man. At the end of the trial police
stood by their decision to prosecute, saying they had carefully and
thoroughly investigated the case. Detective Inspector Mike Arnerich,
of the Wellington CIB, said the investigation was carried out by a competent
and capable child-abuse detective and supervised by an experienced detective
sergeant in charge of the child abuse team. The case was prosecuted by
independent Crown counsel. "We will consider the judge's
comments to see if there are processes that could be improved," he said.
Pat Newman, president of the
Principals' Federation, said he was pleased the judgment was so strong
because it further vindicated the accused teacher. |
