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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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Former Edgar spent nearly four
hours denying every allegation of indecency made against him by the Crown in
the Hamilton District Court yesterday. Edgar, 38, is accused
of seven counts of indecent assault and one of committing an indecent act.
His trial is being heard before Judge Lynton Laing.
For the first time
since he was arrested last November, he told his story. The court had heard
testimony from seven boys, via closed-circuit television, that Edgar had
touched their genitals while he was a teacher at Edgar, who sipped water
throughout his testimony, said that while he used the term gay to describe
his sexual orientation, he was "presently seeing one of the Hukanui
mothers". He said some children
had not been pleasant about his sexual orientation, though he had never been
accused of any other inappropriate behaviour. Edgar denied some of
the incidents ever happened and gave a completely different version of
others. He said he often gave
lollies to students as a reward for good work. One of the boys said
Edgar gave him 10 lollies to change into a pair of togs last November. While
he was changing Edgar allegedly told him to take his underwear off and then
indecently assaulted him. Edgar yesterday said he
told the boy to sort out some lost property and then left the boy alone in
the classroom. When he came back the boy was changing into a pair of shorts
or togs. He said he was angry
the boy might have been stealing the togs and told him to get changed back
into his clothes and leave. The boy asked for lollies and Edgar told him to
take some. Even under
cross-examination from Crown Prosecutor David Wilson, QC, Edgar remained
calm. Mr Wilson asked Edgar
why he had given lollies to the boy when he was angry with him. Edgar said he
told the boy to take some lollies because he felt uncomfortable with the
situation and wanted to leave the room as quickly as possible. Edgar was the first
witness called by defence counsel Roger Laybourn.
He plans to call up to 18 more. |
