Child sex abuse trial under way
A man is facing a jury trial for sex offences over eight years from when a girl was aged 12.
The 35-year-old man was arrested on three charges of doing an indecent act on a person under 16. He is also facing four charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, one of assault with intent to commit sexual violation and one of attempted sexual violation.
The man’s name and all identifying particulars have been suppressed by Judge Stephen O’Driscoll until the end of the trial at the Greymouth District Court. It is alleged the offending happened on the West Coast between March 7, 2005, and March, 6, 2013.
The indecent act charges are alleged to have happened when the girl was aged between 12 and 15, and the man was 21. Two of the charges are representative, meaning the indecent assaults are alleged to have happened numerous times.
The sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, assault with intent and attempted sexual violation are alleged to have happened when she was aged between 17 and 19. Crown prosecutor Mitchell McClenaghan told the jury in his opening address the man began grooming and sexually touching the girl when she was 12.
The sexual offending escalated after the girl turned 18, when the man tried to have sex with her on two occasions. On the last occasion she pushed the man and punched him in the face before he stopped. She laid a complaint with the police three years later.
Defence counsel Marcus Zintl said the man, who was married at the time, had a consensual intimate relationship with the woman after she turned 17. The woman was not honest, credible or reliable, he said. She had exaggerated or made up the allegations because she was motivated by revenge, jealousy and resentment, Zintl said.