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Allegations
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A packed public gallery
erupted in cheers, tears and high fives as former teacher Michael Warren
Neville walked from the Palmerston North District Court a free man yesterday.
It took the jury of 10
women and two men 12 hours to decide he was not guilty on indecent assault
charges. Mr Neville, 48, who at
one time held a senior position at the Kapiti-area school where the offences
were alleged to have occurred, faced four counts of indecent assaults on
girls under 12. The charges covered a period from January 1999 to August
2003. The name of the school
remains suppressed. Mr Neville appeared in
the dock for the readings of the verdict looking tired. Collective sighs of
relief ran through the court as the verdicts were delivered and Mr Neville
wept. His brother Tony
Neville said afterward that justice had prevailed. "When the first
(not guilty verdict) came in, I thought there's no way way
the others could have come out as a guilty verdict." The trauma of an
eight-day trial and 18 months of stress in the lead-up to it had not
diminished his love of teaching, Michael Neville said. "I still love the
profession, even where I work." He had no comment to
make about his accusers, but said he dreamed of returning to teaching. A large contingent of
friends and family posed on the steps of the district court like a wedding
party for the acquitted as Mr Neville and his wife ran a media gauntlet. Outside court, Mr
Neville thanked well-wishers for the cards and letters of support he said had
flooded in since his arrest. "There's just so many wonderful people. The cards and
letters I have received from people, they have been really staunch for
me." Mr Neville's counsel,
Bruce Squire QC and Sandra Moran, both of Wellington, were given a standing
ovation as they left the court and another round of applause as they drove
off from the court. Uniformed police officers had been present in court for
the verdicts. As he discharged the
jurors, Judge Les Atkins thanked them for the effort they put into the case.
The more jury trials he saw, the more he became convinced of the benefit of
the system, Judge Atkins said. * Mr Neville has not
decided if he will take action against police, but he told National Radio
this morning that he would not be conducting a witch hunt. He said he felt as if
he were treated as guilty from the start, but it was "probably more the
procedures and processes rather than the officers themselves" at fault. "The Police
Complaints Authority would be our first port of call if we decide to go that
way," Mr Neville said. He will be meeting with
the school soon to discuss his future, but his dream is to return to the same
school and continue teaching. "I'm still
positive about teaching and I'm a relatively young teacher." -------------------- Caption: Picture: Faith Sides Michael Neville and his
wife, Adele, and other family members outside court. |
