Jury retires for night in sex abuse case

File photo / NZH

A jury has gone home for the night and will resume deliberations tomorrow after the week-long trial of a former Marist brother on historic sex abuse charges.

Bede Thomas Hampton, 62, stands accused of 23 counts, including two of sodomy, against two complainants who were boarders at St Joseph's College at Masterton in the early 1970s.

He pleaded guilty last Monday to two charges of indecently assaulting one of the boys and a further count was withdrawn today.

Hampton, now married with two adult children, has denied the rest of the counts.

He left the Marist order and gave up teaching a few years after the alleged offending and works as an interior decorator in Queensland.

Before extradition was sought, Hampton returned voluntarily from Australia to face trial.

The complainants, now men in their early 50s, were aged between 12 and 16 when they say the abuse happened.

Hampton's lawyer, Christopher Stevenson, told the jury in his summing up that their verdicts had the potential to change his client's life.

"It goes without saying, you have got to get it right."

He said the case was difficult, with allegations dating back 36 years and conflicting evidence.

"You have to be convinced and morally certain of guilt before you can convict."

Hampton had admitted some wrongdoing but there must be presumption of innocence on all of the remaining charges, said Mr Stevenson.

He labelled some of the Crown evidence as implausible, inconceivable and preposterous and said there were inconsistencies in the prosecution evidence.

"Bede Hampton should bear the consequences of what he did. There is no running away - he will bear the consequences."

The accused had acknowledged he had had a problem at that time and even he did not understand it.

He vehemently denied most of the accusations, especially rape.

"He is sorry for what he did but he can't be sorry for what he didn't do," said Mr Stevenson.

The defence lawyer warned the jury: "We do not want a miscarriage of justice. You convict this man at your peril."

Crown prosecutor Kate Feltham had already told jurors the accounts of the complainants were "very different" from that of the accused and they had to decide who to believe.

Neither complainant had told anyone for years about what had happened to them at St Joseph's because, they said, they were embarrassed, disgusted, and ashamed.

That was why Hampton - then aged about 26 - was able to do what he did "and keep on doing it", Ms Feltham said.

Hampton's abuse got "bolder and riskier". The fourth form dormitory, the storeroom, his office and the brothers' house were among the places it occurred, mostly in the evenings and at weekends.

From rubbing and fondling their genitals, he moved on to masturbation, oral and simulated sex, and the alleged sodomy of the younger boy, Ms Feltham said.

- NZPA