KEY POINTS:
The jury in the Marylands School sex abuse trial will retire to consider its verdict tomorrow after a summing up from Justice Graham Panckhurst, starting at 9am in the High Court at Christchurch.
Today was spent in closing addresses by crown prosecutor Kerryn Beaton and defence counsel Greg King, on the tenth day of the trial in which former prior Rodger William Moloney, 73, faces 23 charges of sexually abusing nine boys who were pupils at the school in the 1970s, Christchurch Court News website reported.
Miss Beaton said the jury should reject the evidence of Moloney who gave evidence at the trial last Thursday and Friday.
She spent much of the morning session going through the evidence of the nine complainants in detail, listing the reasons in each case why the jury should accept their testimony.
All of the boys were special needs pupils. The trial was told that almost all had been referred to the Marylands Special School, run by the St John of God Order, by psychological services.
She described one of the boys - now a man in his 40s - as "the classic victim of people who intended to abuse".
That complainant was now showing classic symptoms of someone who had been abused.
One of the victims told of being given lollies and biscuits when abuse occurred. Tellingly, he no longer ate lollies.
One told of so much abuse going on at the school, and being given a hiding when he told one of the brothers about it.
Mr King said there was no complaint with the police inquiry, codenamed Operation Authority. It had been "thoroughly and totally professional".
But he took issue with the Order of St John of God's "pastoral process" to pay compensation to the complainants. It had been open to abuse, and contamination of the identification process. It was clear from the documents that the complainants had been shown photographs to identity the brothers.
Complainants knew, "the more you say, the more they pay," he said. Two men not involved in the trial had been prosecuted for making false allegations as part of the process. One of them had received more than $100,000.
Very significant payments ranging from $30,000 to $317,000 had been made to complainants as part of the process.
It was known from the police evidence that Moloney had no other convictions, and he was not involved in any other trials he said. He was not on trial for failing to stop abuse by another brother, Bernard McGrath, who was eventually convicted and jailed.
He said there had to be concern about discrepancies between the various statements and evidence that the complainants had given.
- NZPA
