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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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Witnesses have
challenged the honesty of another complainant in the trial of a Kapiti
teacher for indecent assault. Michael Warren Neville,
48, has pleaded not guilty to four charges of indecent assault on girls under
12. The assaults are
alleged to have happened between January 1999 and August 2003 and all four
girls were in Neville's class at the time. Earlier, the school's
deputy principal said the first two complainants could not be relied upon to
tell the truth. Yesterday, in
Palmerston North District Court, three teachers called as defence witnesses
said the third girl, who alleged Neville had put his hand inside her
underwear and assaulted her, also could not be relied on to tell the truth. "She was less than
obedient," said one the teachers, whose name, like that of the school,
has been suppressed. "Most of the time
she would do as required, but at times she was very defiant and would do as
she thought best. "There would be
situations when she absolutely would not do what I wanted. She was able to
look me in the eye and say she wouldn't do it, that her opinion was right and
mine wasn't." Another of the teachers
said the girl had denied taking something off her desk and it was impossible
to be sure if she was telling the truth by looking at her face. "She was able to
look at me and say `no'. A lot of children go red, fidget, or avoid eye
contact. I checked her bag and the article was not there...I checked her desk
and found it there." When asked by
prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk what the item was, the teacher replied, "a
lollipop". "A lollipop?"
he repeated. "It doesn't matter
what it was," the teacher said. "She stole from me and didn't
flinch. She had stolen from a teacher, which I think is fairly
significant." The rest of the defence
witnesses are expected to be heard today, with the jury likely to retire to
consider its verdicts on the four charges tomorrow. |
