Bay of Plenty teacher enters not guilty pleas to charges of indecent assault

A Bay of Plenty teacher denied charges of indecently assaulting a girl when she appeared in the Rotorua District Court today. Photo / Andrew Warner

A Bay of Plenty teacher has denied indecently assaulting a girl .

The teacher, who appeared in the Rotorua District Court today, faced three charges of indecent assault.

She also faced a charge of meeting up with a young person under 16 with the intention of taking action in respect to her which would have been an offence under the Crimes Act.

Defence lawyer Andrew Schulze entered not guilty pleas to all charges on his client’s behalf and told Judge Greg Hollister-Jones she elected a trial by jury.

Schulze also successfully sought interim name suppression for the defendant on the grounds publication of her name would result in extreme hardship to her and her family.

He said there was also potentially a risk it would jeopardise her fair trial rights.

Schulze said the woman’s affidavit in support of her name suppression application had been filed with the court.

The police prosecutor said police were neutral on the application.

Judge Hollister-Jones said he accepted if the woman’s name was allowed to be published, there would be extreme hardship caused to her and her family.

He granted interim name suppression for the defendant until her trial and remanded her on several bail terms to next appear in court on November 15 for a case review hearing. No trial date has yet been set.

Each of the indecent assault charges attracts a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and seven years prison for the other charge.

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.