Cardno father admits drugs charges

Two Wellington brothel keepers today admitted in the High Court at Wellington to giving drugs to teenagers, but still deny raping a schoolgirl who later worked as a prostitute for them.

Gary John Duffin and Sharyn Lee Hills, the father and step-mother of murdered Lower Hutt schoolgirl Karla Cardno, changed their pleas on 10 charges of supplying three teenagers with cannabis between May 1991 and December 1992.

They maintained they had not raped one of the teenagers later, though admitted she had come to work for them as a prostitute.

The woman, who now lives in Australia, said she was 14 at the time and now viewed her alleged sexual violation by Hills and Duffin as her "interview".

In a police video taken during an interview with Hills in 2006, the woman said the young girl had manipulated them, calling her a "sinner" and saying she "acted very mature".

Hills said the complainant had made up the allegations in an attempt to get ACC compensation.

Duffin said he and Hills had had sex with the girl on several other occasions, though all contact was consensual.

About two years before the incidents, Duffin and Hills' daughter, Karla Cardno, was kidnapped, raped and tortured, before her killer Paul Dally beat her on the head with a piece of driftwood then buried her alive at a beach near Wellington.

Prosecution and defence lawyers would sum up their cases this afternoon. The jury would retire to make their decision tomorrow.

- NZPA