Allegations of Sexual Abuse
	False Allegations
	Michael Neville case
	Dominion Post December 2 2004 Court packed for last day of teacher's trial People were sitting on the floor and the press were moved to the dock as supporters of a Kapiti teacher packed a Palmerston North court room for the final day of his indecent assault trial. The district court jury in Michael Warren Neville's trial retired at 3.15pm yesterday to consider its verdict. It retired to a hotel shortly before 10pm and will resume its deliberations this morning. Neville, 48, has pleaded not guilty to four charges of indecent assault on girls under 12. The offences were said to have happened between January 1999 and August 2003. The complainants were four of his former students. The small court room was packed yesterday for the closing addresses by counsel and the summing up by Judge Les Atkins QC. Defence lawyer Bruce Squire QC said the Crown's case was based on the uncorroborated evidence of four complainants. The first complainant had said during her evidence that her best friend had witnessed the offence, but the Crown had not called the friend as a witness. Crown lawyer Ben Vanderkolk accused some of the defence witnesses of a cynical attitude concerning allegations of dishonesty and lying against two of the complainants. Incidents treated lightly at school assumed major importance during the trial. Judge Atkins told the jury that, to constitute an assault, touching had to be deliberate or intentional. "The second thing to consider is whether the assault was an indecent one and that is for you alone to decide." An offender would have to know that what was being done was indecent and, with that knowledge, continue, Judge Atkins said. The courtroom was so crowded yesterday that people sat on the floor in front of the first row of seats in the public gallery and the overflow from the press bench was allowed to sit in the dock. Throughout the trial, which was in its eighth day yesterday, Neville, in a dark suit, sat staring straight ahead, hands clasped in his lap. Two hours after retiring, the jury returned to have read to them the cross-examination of the first of the four complainants.