Man, 79, convicted for indecent assaults

Albert Gerald Adams, 79, was found guilty and convicted on three charges of indecent assault for touching the groin area of three patients when he worked in Masterton. PHOTO/FILE

An elderly retired chiropractor has been found guilty of indecently touching young men at his clinic in the 1970s and 1980s.

Albert Gerald Adams was on trial this week on three charges of indecent assault for touching the groin area of three patients when he worked in Masterton.

The 79-year-old denied any wrongdoing but, in the Wellington District Court yesterday, Judge Jan Kelly delivered her guilty verdicts, after she heard the case without a jury.

"These charges arose from a complaint made to the police following the defendant's acquittal on a charge of indecent assault at an earlier trial, which was reported in the Wairarapa Times Age without naming the defendant," Judge Kelly said.

Adams' offending began in the 1970s, when he touched a boy, aged in his teens. The boy came to him for treatment on a troublesome back.

Adams then indecently assaulted a man who came to him for treatment, aged in his early 20s, in the early 1980s.

The final charge related to a teenage boy in the mid-1980s who went to Adams with a sore back and was indecently assaulted.

The defence said Adams didn't set up his clinic in Masterton until 1979 and because of the time taken in laying the indecent assault complaints, he didn't have copies of his clinic's records.

Adams claimed he couldn't recall treating the men but said if he did, nothing untoward happened, the defence argued.

Another man, who gave evidence but didn't want to be the subject of a criminal charge, made similar allegations, as did a man who made similar allegations in a 2014 trial, where Adams was acquitted.

"I accept their evidence as credible and reliable," Judge Kelly said of the two other witnesses.

"This evidence shows it is more likely [Adams] has done what he was charged with."

The judge said the chances of the three other men, who didn't know each other, making up similar allegations was unlikely.

She said the three were truthful when recalling what happened to them and didn't over-state anything.

Adams was convicted and bailed until sentencing next month.

Judge Kelly ordered a pre-sentence report, which would look into the possibility of an electronically-monitored sentence.

When the verdicts were delivered a woman who supported Adams in court wept and then left the public gallery.