Principal sexual abuse trial: Deep Green Bush School founder Joe Moncarz revealed as defendant

Joe Moncarz, the former principal at Deep Green Bush School in Auckland, has been charged with sexual abuse of a child. Photo / Supplied

Interim name suppression has lapsed for the former principal and head teacher of a rural South Auckland nature school who is currently on trial accused of having sexually abused a female student.

Joseph Jacob Moncarz, 51, who was known as Joey Moncarz to students at Deep Green Bush School in Clevedon, started his jury trial in Manukau District Court yesterday by pleading not guilty to eight charges involving a single complainant under the age of 12.

The unique private school and Moncarz, who helped establish it after moving to New Zealand from the United States, received national and international media attention after it was founded in 2017. The school is no longer in operation.

Jurors today watched two recorded police interviews in which the child recounted the abuse allegations.

The child sat in the interview room with her arms crossed as she was asked to describe her love of drawing birds, climbing trees and the particulars of her school.

“He’s just a teacher at the school,” she initially said of the defendant. “Joey goes down sometimes and shoots bunnies with his gun, and then we skin it and we eat it.”

Her demeanour changed, covering her face and wiping away tears, as the interviewer steered her towards the reason for the interview.

“He did it,” she said as she went on to describe one alleged incident in detail.

“I did not like it ... I was trying to get away from him. I was pushing him away. I kept pushing him away and he kept pulling me back.”

When asked to describe other incidents and how it made her feel, she gave single-word replies such as “yuck” and “disgusting”.

The child appeared in court via an audio-visual feed as the videos were played.

During cross-examination defence lawyer David Reece suggested the child might have made the allegations to appease her mother, who he said didn’t like his client. The lawyer played recordings that he said depicted the child’s mother using “anti-Semitic references” such as “Jewish asshole” to describe the defendant, as well as other “verbal abuse and hostility”.

The student said she did remember her mother saying “mean stuff” about the defendant, but she denied it was her voice or her mother’s voice on most of the recordings played by the defence.

“Who would it be if it’s not you?” Reece asked repeatedly.

“I don’t know but it’s not me,” she responded.

“I don’t think you’re telling the truth,” Reece said after another denial.

“I am,” she said.

The child agreed with the defence lawyer that she would “sometimes” enjoy Moncarz’s company.

“You had a lot of fun with Joe yourself, didn’t you?” he asked. “You remember him reading to you and playing music with you ... wrestling, rough and tumble?”

The child agreed.

“Did [your mum] ever say in front of you he was a child molester?” Reece asked.

“No, I never heard that,” the child said.

Judge Nick Webby ordered a break and sent jurors home for the day after the child described being afraid of Moncarz and began crying, placing her hands over her face.

Cross-examination is expected to continue tomorrow.