WARNING: This story contains details of alleged sexual abuse<\/p>\n
A teacher accused of sexually abusing a boy claims it was he who had made sexual advances on her and she had shut it down.<\/p>\n
Today, the woman, whose name is suppressed, gave evidence in her trial at the Wellington District Court, where she is defending charges of sexually abusing the boy when he was as young as 12.<\/p>\n
The complainant, now an adult, has alleged the teacher and family friend had sexually abused him in the early 2000s while he was babysitting her children at her house and sleeping over.<\/p>\n
He has described alleged incidents of sexual intercourse, oral sex and sexual touching.<\/p>\n
The woman, on trial before Judge Bill Hastings, is defending\u00a0five counts of sexual violation\u00a0by unlawful sexual connection and two counts of doing an indecent act on a young person.<\/p>\n
In evidence, the\u00a0woman denied the complainant babysat for her\u00a0and that he ever slept at her house.<\/p>\n
She said at the time she was living with her children and her father at a property in\u00a0Wellington.<\/p>\n
It is at this address that the complainant alleged the abuse occurred.<\/p>\n
But she said the alleged offending could not have taken place as the man described it, because her father lived with her and was responsible for caring for her children and running the house.<\/p>\n
Her father also would have seen or heard any alleged abuse, she claimed.<\/p>\n
She claimed there was only one occasion of anything intimate occurring between the pair, and that was when the then-teenager had tried to kiss her as she stood in her kitchen.<\/p>\n
The woman said she pushed him away with both hands and told him it was inappropriate.<\/p>\n
That was the last time he\u2019d visited her house, she said.<\/p>\n
Several other witnesses also gave evidence for the defence, including the woman\u2019s son and a parent whose children were at the school where the woman taught.<\/p>\n
Both recalled the woman\u2019s father living at the woman\u2019s house and being a constant presence in their lives during the period the alleged abuse occurred.<\/p>\n
The woman\u2019s son told the court the complainant never babysat them and never stayed overnight.<\/p>\n
The parent also couldn\u2019t recall the complainant babysitting for the woman or any other parent.<\/p>\n
Under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Anselm Williams reminded the woman the complainant, his sister and mother had all testified that the complainant had babysat her children.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they are all wrong about that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorrect,\u201d the woman responded.<\/p>\n
The woman also rejected a suggestion by the Crown that her father had not stayed at the house for the entire period of the alleged abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t there every time you were there,\u201d Williams suggested.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he was,\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n
Williams challenged the woman\u2019s account of the alleged kiss, asking why she hadn\u2019t told his parents.<\/p>\n
The woman said she thought she\u2019d said enough, and she could see the complainant was embarrassed.<\/p>\n
Because it was a personal matter, she said there was also no need to involve the school.<\/p>\n
Williams also challenged the woman\u2019s son\u2019s evidence, questioning its reliability, given his young age at the time of the alleged offending.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suggest you don\u2019t have a clear memory … at all, do you?\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were occasions when [the complainant] would spend time with you after school, times when he\u2019d come to the house and times he stayed overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d the son responded.<\/p>\n
The trial closings are expected to be heard tomorrow.<\/p>\n
MALE SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS<\/p>\n
Where to get help:
If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
\u2022 If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone call the confidential crisis helpline\u00a0Safe to Talk\u00a0on 0800 044 334 or text 4334. (available 24\/7)
\u2022\u00a0Male Survivors Aotearoa\u00a0offers a range of confidential support at centres across New Zealand –\u00a0find your closest one here.
\u2022\u00a0Mosaic – Tiaki Tangata: 0800 94 22 94 (available 11am-8pm)
\u2022 Alternatively contact your local police station –\u00a0click here for a list.
If you have been abused, remember it’s not your fault.<\/p>\n
SEXUAL HARM Catherine Hutton, Open Justice reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARNING: This story contains details of alleged sexual abuse A teacher accused of sexually abusing a boy claims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-67677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Where to get help:
If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact\u00a0Safe to Talk\u00a0confidentially, any time 24\/7:
\u2022 Call 0800 044 334
\u2022 Text 4334
\u2022 Email support@safetotalk.nz<\/a>
\u2022 For more info or to web chat visit\u00a0safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station –\u00a0click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it’s not your fault.<\/p>\n