A prominent Otago man hugged his supporters after being cleared of sexual assault charges this afternoon.<\/p>\n
A jury found the man, who still has interim name suppression, not guilty of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, doing an indecent act on a young person and indecent assault.<\/p>\n
The Crown case was that the defendant had gained the trust of the teenage boy through his role working with youth and sexually offended against him between 2014 and 2019.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Andrew McRae said the man had groomed the complainant and abused his position of trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Crown say that [the defendant] was like a grandfather to the complainant, he was obviously a mentor to him, he encouraged him to be his best and he gained the trust of his parents as well,\u201d Mr McRae.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings took a sinister turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complainant told the jury: “I feel like I trusted him and other people trusted him and he was well known,\u201d the complainent said.<\/p>\n
He said the complainant had been an honest and believable witness.<\/p>\n
But the jury rejected that narrative, instead believing the defence that the complainant was \u201ca bit of a story-teller\u201d.<\/p>\n
The defendant had \u201cemphatically\u201d denied the allegations and after he was arrested in 2023, told police he would \u201cnever ever ever\u201d sexually abuse the boy.<\/p>\n
“That would be putting aside everything I\u2019ve stood for all my life, it just didn\u2019t happen,\u201d the defendant told Detective Mark Durant.<\/p>\n
In closing to the jury, counsel Philip Hall KC said his client\u2019s police interview had \u201cthe ring of honesty\u201d to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could almost feel the outrage and disgust in the way he responded to the allegations\u2026 he appeared to be absolutely genuine,\u201d Mr Hall said.<\/p>\n
When Det Durant asked the defendant about the allegation he sexually violated the teenager, he replied “not true, absolutely not true”.<\/p>\n
“In his dreams,” the defendant said.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s a likeable enough young man, [but] he exaggerates, he had bits of illusion, he can be a bit of a story-teller,” the defendant said.<\/p>\n
The defendant said he was “appalled” by the allegations.<\/p>\n
“I think he looked up to me.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t know why he\u2019s doing this.”<\/p>\n
After the verdicts this afternoon, the defendant was discharged and hugged his supporters in the back of the court room.<\/p>\n
A hearing for final name suppression was set down for October 3.<\/p>\n