KEY POINTS:
An elderly man, Ting Shue Yee, has admitted indecently assaulting a five-year-old girl who was playing and reading at a Christchurch library.
A more serious charge of sexual violation of the girl was withdrawn by the police when Yee appeared before Judge Stephen Erber in Christchurch District Court today.
The frail looking 80-year-old was remanded on bail to January 23 for sentence with the judge ordering a probation report and a victim impact report.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Dave Murray said Yee went to the Shirley Library on August 25. He had been going there for years and on this day he went to the area where children sit to read and play.
The five-year-old girl was there with her mother and sisters. She was reading to her nine-year-old sister while her mother left to take another sister to the toilet.
Yee motioned for the girl to come over. He began to rub her and put his hands down her pants. He touched her genitals and tried to remove her underpants.
The girl moved away and went to the toilet where she told her mother what had happened, before pointing out the man who had touched her.
The offending caused the girl pain and swelling.
The mother spoke to a librarian and police were called. Yee admitted the facts when the police spoke to him.
He had interim name suppression when he first appeared in court but Judge Erber ordered that lifted.
He continued the remand on bail under strict conditions including a ban from going near the library, not having contact with children aged under 16, and being accompanied by a family member when he leaves his suburban Shirley house.
- NZPA
