Teacher fails in appeal bid

A Northland teacher jailed for sexual assaulting children has failed to appeal his conviction

A Northland teacher jailed for physically and sexually abusing children placed in his care by Child, Youth and Family has lost his appeal against conviction.

Taite Hemi Kupa, 57, was sentenced in June 2014 in the High Court at Whangarei to 14 years and six months' jail after being found guilty by a jury on three counts of rape, six counts of unlawful sexual connection and one each of attempted rape and attempted unlawful sexual connection.

The sex convictions relate to two girls, who were aged 10 and 14 at the time.

He was also sentenced on nine counts of assault on a child aged under 14 and one of assault on a female (a 14-year-old girl).

The offending happened between August 2011 and February 2013 at a CYF family home Kupa and his wife were in charge of.

In the Court of Appeal, Kupa argued his trial lawyer failed to apply to separate the sexual and assault charges in the High Court before his trial.

He also said the trial judge made an error by failing to exclude prejudicial and inadmissible evidence of the physical assaults being heard together with the sexual charges.

The Court of Appeal rejected his argument, saying the trial judge correctly directed the jury to consider only the evidence relevant to each charge when emphasising that Kupa faced separate trials on each count.