Dad denies sexual abuse of his young daughter but admits physical discipline of children

The man, who has interim name suppression, is on trial in the Whanganui District Court on Monday facing a raft of charges. Photo / NZME

WARNING: This story deals with sexual content and may be distressing.

A young girl told a police investigator her father would put her on top of him, grab her bottom and shake her, a jury heard in the Whanganui District Court on Monday.

The video interview was played for the court as the trial of the 52-year-old defendant began.

The man, who has interim name suppression, is on trial before Judge Jonathan Krebs and a jury of eight men and four women.

He pleaded not guilty to three charges each of doing an indecent act with a girl and unlawful sexual connection, two of raping a female under 12 and one each of being cruel to a child and threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm.

Guilty pleas were entered to three charges of breaching a protection order, two of assault on a child and one of ill-treatment of an animal.

The video interview, where the 9-year-old described to a police investigator her dad’s night-time behaviour, was played for the jury as the trial got underway.

The girl alleged her father sexually abused her in various ways including putting her on top of him while he was exposed, and that she tried to get away from him but she couldn’t.

She also described her father licking her ear and sending sexually explicit messages to her aunt.

During the interview, she explained her father also peed everywhere, like a dog, which she and her twin brother had to clean up, and how they were scared he would beat them up.

The girl said she had told her father about the pain she suffered when he touched her private parts after he asked her once if it hurt.

“Even though he knows it hurts, he carries on.”

In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Rufus Hancock told the jury the physical and sexual abuse of the twins spanned about three years between 2017 and 2020.

Hancock said the first time the young girl felt pain and woke up to find her father in bed with her.

After her dad put her hand on his private parts she pulled her hand away and was frightened.

Hancock said the girl described the offending happening repeatedly.

“It happened a lot during that time period.”

Defence lawyer Megan Jaquiery said her client wasn’t the “pure evil” the Crown had painted him as.

Jaquiery said the father was shocked and horrified at the charges he was facing after giving up his job and returning home from Australia to care for his children.

“He does his absolute best.”

She said the defendant was no angel, he had taken drugs and been a womaniser, but his history was in the past and he had taken responsibility for the things he had done in relation to the alleged offending with guilty pleas.

“This [sexual offending] did not happen, none of it.”

The trial has been set down for five days.