Couple cleared of historic sex charges against daughter

A husband and wife from a small township near Gisborne have been found not guilty of all historic charges of rape and inducing their daughter to do indecent acts.

The jury of eight women and four men returned their verdicts just before 4.30pm today, after deliberating for four hours.

They retired after Justice Douglas White summed up the trial in the High Court at Auckland this morning.

The man was acquitted of two charges of rape, and a charge of inducing his daughter, aged 12 at the time, to do an indecent act.

The woman was acquitted of inducing the daughter, who was then under 16, to do an indecent act.

The couple, who have name suppression, were jointly acquitted on two counts of inducing their daughter to do an indecent act.

The charges related to alleged incidents between January 23, 1978, and January 23, 1981, at a township near Gisborne.

Their daughter, now 39, gave evidence during the trial, as did her mother and father.

The Crown alleged a series of sexual assaults occurred at the family home when the girl was aged between seven and 10.

It alleged that in one of the incidents the father ordered her to take her clothes off and perform an indecent act while he and a friend watched.

The Crown also maintained he also raped his daughter in a caravan on the property and in her parents' bedroom.

The man's lawyer, Chris Wilkinson-Smith, said the allegations were made when their daughter tried to wean herself off methamphetamine.

He said the daughter was quite an unstable person, whose evidence was untruthful and unreliable.

The mother's lawyer, Adam Simperingham, said his client absolutely denied the allegations against her.

He told the jurors it would be up to them whether they believed what the complainant said was reliable, and whether it fitted with other events.

- NZPA