Ex-school staff member faces sex charges

A staff member at an Auckland residential school raped one girl and repeatedly sexually abused two other children in the 1980s, a trial has been told.

The accused man also burned one of the children with a cigarette and attacked him with a staple gun, prosecutors said.

The accused man, whose name is suppressed, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland on 25 charges relating to alleged incidents in the 1980s at Waimokoia School in Bucklands Beach, southeast Auckland. He denies that any of the alleged incidents which led to the charges ever happened.

Four indecent assault charges, two of attempted sodomy, three of assault with intent to injure and one of injuring with intent relate to a boy aged between nine and 10 during the offending.

Six charges of sexual violation and five of indecent assault relate to a girl aged 12, while one rape charge was laid in connection with another 12-year-old girl.

Crown prosecutor Tiffany Robertson told jurors in her opening address that the alleged offences occurred while the accused was a staff member at the former school, which catered for children with behavioural problems that couldn't be met at mainstream schools.

Ms Robertson said the assaults against the boy began with incidents in the boy's bedroom, where the accused allegedly made the boy masturbate him and masturbated against the boy's body.

She said the offending was "both repetitive and got progressively more sadistic".

Some incidents occurred in a "time out" room which had no windows, Ms Robertson said.

The man also allegedly tried to staple the boy's penis to a chair in one incident and also burned him in two places with the end of a cigarette on another occasion. Both left long-term scars, she said.

Ms Robertson said the girl was 12 when the alleged actions on her occurred.

They include allegations of sexual touching, forcing her to masturbate him and getting her to perform oral sex.

Ms Robertson said some of these incidents happened after he made her watch pornographic films with him. Other incidents happened in various locations, including on a school bus, she said.

The alleged rape on a second girl when she was 12 related to an incident at the school sick bay, Ms Robertson said.

The accused man's lawyer Ron Mansfield said the allegations were horrific and shocking but that his client's defence was simple.

"His position is a clear one, a vehement one. These things did not happen to these children at the school," he said.

"There's no shades of grey, no issues of consent or whether a certain act was an assault or not, it is simply that the allegations made by these three individuals did not occur."

Mr Mansfield said the accused man would give evidence in his defence and would call a number of witnesses.

He said jurors would need to assess the credibility and reliability of the complainants and asked them to keep an open mind.

A jury of eight men and four women will hear the trial at the High Court in Auckland.

The re-trial, before Justice Graham Lang, is expected to last about four weeks.

- NZPA