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SUPREME COURT Acquittal On Sex Charges

After a three-day trial in the Supreme Court on eight sex charges involving young girls, a 63-year-old man was acquitted by a jury yesterday afternoon on all counts against him. But although discharged by Mr Justice Wilson on the eight charges decided yesterday, the man was remanded on bail for trial on June 9 on six more charges on which be has been indicted. On the application of counsel, Mr R. F. B. Powell, his Honour continued the interim suppression of the man’s name.

His Honour, in summing up yesterday, had warned the jury of the danger, in sexual cases, of convicting on the evidence of children unless such evidence was corroborated.

On two of four charges against the accused of permitting a girl to do an indecent act upon him, his Honour directed that there was no corroboration of the complainant's evidence, and on the two others directed an acquittal on the ground that there was no evidence to support such charges the complainant having claimed that intercourse, rather than an indecent act, had taken place on the dates specified. Of a charge of indecent assault, alleged on or about August 30, 1962, his Honour advised an acquittal, on the ground that the evidence was dated, and came from a child now only 13: and of a charge of attempted unlawful sexual intercourse again directed that there was no corroboration.

Of a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse, his Honour suggested that there was only corroboration if the jury was prepared to draw one particular inference frdm the' proved facts—in which case there was very strong cor-

roboration, his Honour said. Mr Powell, addressing the jury in the accused’s defence, emphasised the long period over which no complaint had been made against the accused by the 13-year-old girl mainly involved in the case, and described much of the Crown’s evidence as “the slow, sly, and shiftily-vague recollections” of a young girl with a propensity to untruthfulness and—even at the age of 12—to chasing boys. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr N. W. Williamson), in his address, had asked if the main complainant’s vagueness on details and dates suggested a

deliberately-concocted story or an attempt to recall what had happened over a long period? There was medical evidence that this girl had obviously been sexually interfered with a number of times, so that it was understandable that she should be vague on details and dates over what she said had happened so often.

The jury was three hours and a half in reaching its verdict.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19690508.2.70

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 9

Word Count
428

SUPREME COURT Acquittal On Sex Charges Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 9

SUPREME COURT Acquittal On Sex Charges Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 9