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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The defence closed its
case in the trial of former Marylands School brother Bernard Kevin McGrath
after calling one witness for less than 30 minutes of evidence over a video
link from the North Island. McGrath himself will
not give evidence in the three-week trial. His defence counsel,
Raoul Neave, told the High Court jury they had already heard from the accused
in several hours of "cross-examination" recorded on video by two
police officers. McGrath, 58, faces more
than 40 sexual abuse charges relating to 16 boys who were pupils at the
school where he was a teacher in the 1970s. The defence called a
former woman teacher, whose name was suppressed. She said she worked with
McGrath sometimes for team teaching and she never saw him "physically
assault, strike, or abuse those children". She would never have
tolerated it. She knew some of the alleged victims in the trial when they
were boys. She described one as an
"energetic, happy, vocal, livewire". Another was a scalliwag
whose pastime was "accumulating cigarettes from wherever - he was the
school smoker. You would never get a straight answer from him". Questioned by Crown
prosecutor Chris Lange, she denied a suggestion from McGrath, made in his
video interview, that she had wanted a relationship with him. "It's ludicrous.
No disrespect to the defendant, I'm sorry but I would never have regarded the
man in that way." The trial then moved
straight to closing addresses by opposing counsel. Mr Lange asked the jury
to consider the charges dispassionately. "From time to time
there are trials which can evoke a considerable amount of emotion, sympathy
and prejudice. This is one of those trials." The real issue was
whether they considered the boys were credible and their evidence reliable. "The Crown says
this trial is not some impossible task because it concerns events that
occurred 30 years ago." The defence had sought
to make a lot out of details of dates and times. It was normal for people to
have trouble recalling dates and times, but that did not mean events did not
occur or memory was unreliable, he said. The defence was to
present its closing arguments later yesterday, and Justice Chisholm will sum
up on Monday morning before the jury retires to consider its verdicts. * A hearing will be
held next month to determine whether a retired Catholic brother accused of
sexually abusing a boy in the late 1970s will face trial. John Louis Stevenson,
66, faces five charges of indecently assaulting a boy, aged between 12 and
16, which he denies. In the Wellington
District Court yesterday Judge Anne Gaskell remanded Stevenson in custody
until April 13 for a depositions hearing. |
