Indecency charge dismissed over police procedure

A man has had a charge of performing an indecent act in a public place dismissed because police breached his human rights.

Two separate indecent act charges were also dismissed after the victims in those incidents were unable to identify him.

The charges against the 22-year-old unemployed Tauranga man were heard in Tauranga District Court this month before Judge Peter Rollo, who released his decision today.

He said he accepted the argument put forward by the accused's lawyer, Rachael Adams, that the police had unlawfully detained the man at his mother's Otumoetai house when they questioned him on September 6 last year.z

Judge Rollo said he had a "reasonably held belief, induced by police conduct, that he was not free to leave his mother's home".

Police had no power to detain him under the circumstances, because it was only for questioning.

Furthermore, police failed to give the accused his Bill of Rights advice and a "short-form caution" before interviewing him at the Tauranga police station.

Judge Rollo said this was "a serious breach of his right to silence and counsel".

Notebook interviews by a detective - in which the accused admitted some of the charges - were dismissed as evidence.

The accused denied all the charges in court.

He said he only made the statements to the detective to "get them (the police) off my back".

Police allege the incident took place on August 21 last year in an alleyway next to Otumoetai Intermediate School.

The accused allegedly exposed himself to a 12-year-old girl as she went past him.

The girl later identified the accused in court.

- NZPA