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Allegations of Abuse
in Institutions |
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John Gainsford Seven days of trial and 10 hours
of deliberation by the jury and John Francis Gainsford was found guilty on
all but one of the sexual abuse charges he was facing. Herald Staff report. The former Salvation Army officer
was late last night found guilty on 22 sexual abuse charges involving
children at the Bramwell Booth Children's Home in the 1970s. In the High Court at Timaru the
jury found Gainsford, 69, guilty on three counts of rape and 19 of
indecencies. He was found not guilty on one indecency
charge. Gainsford stood impassively in the dock as the verdicts were read. Justice Fogarty remanded Gainsford
in custody until December 11 for sentencing. He then thanked the jury for what
had been an onerous trial and discharged them from jury service for three
years. Gainsford had pleaded guilty to
three charges of indecent assault on girls under 12 and a charge of inducing
a girl under 12 to perform an indecent act, at the start of the high court
trial a fortnight ago. Completing his summing up
yesterday, counsel for Gainsford Paul Dacre suggested to put a child's hand
over his penis in such a public place as on a bus full of children, defied
logic, referring to one complainant who had alleged just that. As to the alleged assault on the
male complainant, Mr Dacre told the jury the evidence was quite outrageous –
whether or not it was true. He described it as a brutal assault. It was the most sustained of the
assaults described by the complainants. It would have had to have occurred on
a Saturday morning and in a public area of the home, meaning the complaint
could not be credible. "It could not have happened
without people hearing. It was monstrous activity which simply can not have
been correct. He told the jury Mrs Gainsford's
evidence was one of the most important witnesses, noting it had not been
questioned. "What was said in her
presence 30 years ago was correct then, and correct now. It was the truth of
what was going on in the home. Her statement to the court told of
a meeting with a senior Salvation Army officer, of Gainsford being asked if
there had been any penetration, and his response had been "definitely
not". In his summing up Justice Fogarty
had warned the jury that just because Gainsford had pleaded guilty to four
charges they could not assume he was guilty of them all. While there was no suggestion the
complainants had concocted a story to make false allegations, they had been
very young girls and had talked about what was going on. Justice Fogarty advised the jury
to watch for "borrowed recollections", asking whether the
complainants could have got their memories from "girl talk"
involving those who Gainsford had admitted indecencies with. |
