Man denies sexually abusing five cousins ​​in Tauranga District Court trial

WARNING: This story contains details of alleged sexual abuse and may be disturbing to some readers

A man says he doesn’t know why five cousins ​​​​— his partner’s nieces and nephews — fabricated allegations of repeated sexual assault.

He is accused of 27 counts of sexual and physical assault against the complainants, who were between 10 and 15 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.

During the trial in the Tauranga District Court this week, a jury heard evidence from the five cousins ​​and the adults they confided in.

Forced oral sex. Playing with his genitals in front of her. Spanking. Groping while sleeping. Hands under clothes.

These comprehensive allegations make up the bulk of the prosecution’s charges against the 26-year-old.

In his testimony in court, the defendant told his lawyer David Bates that he did not know why the children had made up the allegations.

To every accusation made against him, he replied, “I did not do that, sir.”

He told his lawyer that he was not at home at the time of many of the allegations because he works long hours.

During cross-examination, prosecutor Catherine Harold listed the names of the five plaintiffs and two witnesses who had testified in support of the allegations and said, “Are you telling us that they are all wrong?”

He answered: “Yes.”

The abuse is said to have spanned several years, mostly in homes where the cousins ​​lived with relatives other than their parents.

The accused was one of the adults living at the same address in Kawerau, yet he told the court he “barely knew” the cousins.

He said his time was stretched due to his long working hours, his close relationship with his partner and his involvement with his own young children, and he had not had close contact with the teenagers and other young people in the house.

All plaintiffs stated in the evidence videos and in their statements in court that over time they became aware that they were all being insulted to varying degrees.

In some cases, the man entered their bedrooms or tried to touch their “private body parts” while they were sleeping in the living room, they said.

One of them had witnessed another being allegedly “forced” to perform oral sex on the man outside.

He called out the teenager’s name, which “enabled him to escape,” he said in his testimony.

The same boy is also said to have observed the man playing with his genitals in front of another cousin, a young girl, after the defendant left the bathroom.

The cousins ​​had begun to warn each other to be “careful” when dealing with their aunt’s partner, but did not confide in any adults at the time.

At least two of the plaintiffs stated in court that they had no trustworthy adults to whom they could have informed.

“I didn’t believe they could help me,” said one of the cousins.

The court heard from one of the aunts who had been confided in that they had initially tried to sort out the matter themselves after things came to light.

She told the court that she and her partner had confronted the defendant about some of the things the defendant was alleged to have done and that he had burst into tears and said he was sorry.

The woman said in her testimony that she read him Bible verses about taking responsibility for sins.

However, the defendant denied that this conversation ever took place and said he was never angry.

During cross-examination, he stated in court that he had never apologized because for him “there is nothing to apologize for.”

It was proven to the court that family meetings had taken place at least twice before the decision to report the alleged crime to the police.

The teenager who alleged the most serious and repeated abuse told the court that he finally confided in an adult when it all became too much for him.

He said he had lost track of how many times he was allegedly forced to perform sexual acts on the defendant, to the point where he had become “used to it.”

However, he said that after the accused attended a church service in Hamilton with other family members, he returned to the house and “forced” the teenager to perform oral sex again.

“(He went to this) thing in church, I believe it was a release… transferring all sins to God, and then when they came back, he made me (perform a sexual act).”

The teenager was angry and upset and no longer wanted to be afraid in his “own home”.

He had confided in an aunt who testified in court. She said the boy cried when he told her what had happened.

She said, however, that he did not want to go to the police because he did not want to cause trouble for the family.

The court will hear closing arguments from the prosecution and defence before Judge David Cameron on Monday.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter with NZME. She previously covered courts and local government for the Nelson Mail and before that was a radio reporter with Newstalk ZB.