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Allegations
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The mother of a girl
who accused a teacher of sexually assaulting her says she was told by police
that the man was a paedophile and they knew he was guilty. Kapiti teacher Michael
Neville, found not guilty on four charges of indecent assault in Palmerston
North District Court on Thursday, is considering legal action against police
for the handling of the investigation. Four former pupils had
accused him of sexually assaulting them between 1999 and 2003. He was
arrested on September 23 last year. Mr Neville was relaxing
at his Levin home with wife Adele and family yesterday. For 18 months, he had
lived under the cloud of the allegations and was delighted to be free of
them. "I'm still up on the ceiling. We're just so relieved and delighted."
Mr Neville is
considering laying a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority and said
legal action for compensation was a possibility. The eight-day court case
cost at least $130,000, most of which was paid by the primary teachers'
union. "But we spent about $28,000 of our own." He says he was treated
as a criminal by police "from the word go". The officers who
arrested him came to his house at 8am in black clothes and black wrap-around
sunglasses. They would not let him dress alone, and told his wife: "He's
our prisoner, we'll go where we like." "It really was
bizarre. Like straight out of a movie," Mr Neville said. During his
police interview he was called "scum of the earth" and told by
police that they knew he was guilty, he said. He is also angry about
a free-call "hotline" set up to take other complaints, and about a
letter sent to selected parents of pupils that appeared to state the initial
allegation as a fact. Detective Sergeant
Peter Govers said he stood by the
"professional and thorough" handling of the case. "They are
entitled to their opinions and if they want to make a complaint they are
entitled to it." The mother of the first
complainant, whose daughter accused Mr Neville of touching her genitals in
class, said yesterday the family was devastated by the outcome of the case.
However, they did not blame police for the acquittal. "The police knew
he was guilty from the beginning. They said to me that he fitted the profile
of a paedophile from the word go." She believed the jury
had been swayed by the presence of Mr Neville's supporters in court. She said her daughter
was so upset by the verdicts that she had stayed home from school. "She
said: `Why, Mum, why? Why don't they believe me?' " Mr Neville said he
would like to return to his former school, but its position on taking him
back was unclear. He believed he would have the opportunity to meet the board
of trustees and union representatives to discuss his reinstatement. The school chairman
said yesterday it would go through an "employment process in accordance
with legal advice" before commenting on re-employment. -------------------- CAPTION: Out from under a cloud:
Michael and Adele Neville at their home in Levin yesterday. `We're just so
relieved and delighted,' he said. Picture: Winton Cleal |
