KEY POINTS:
A Wellington man accused of sexually abusing two young brothers in the early 1980s is on trial in the High Court.
The man, who has interim name suppression, faces seven charges -- six of doing an indecent act and one of sodomy on a boy aged under 16.
Crown prosecutor Mark O'Donoghue said the brothers, now grown men in their 30s, allege they were sexually abused in their family home by the accused, who was a friend of their father.
The boys were at primary school at the time and aged between about seven and 11.
Neither boy told anyone what had happened until the older brother mentioned it to his church pastor in 2005.
He did this after memories were triggered when he and his wife and children moved back into his parents home and were staying in his parents' bedroom -- where the alleged offending took place -- while they saved to buy their own home.
"He found he could not stop the bad memories flooding back," Mr O'Donoghue said.
He then went to police who asked if he had any other brothers, and he raised the issue with them at a family meeting where one of his younger brothers said he too had been abused.
Defence lawyer Letitia Ord said her client denied the allegations, which were said to have happened more than 25 years ago.
She spoke of recent publicity over the police sex trials and the furore created over the way sex trials were conducted in New Zealand.
"It has been suggested that complainants in sex trials always tell the truth," she said.
But the jury had to consider whether the events happened at all and if they did, whether the accused was the perpetrator.
The jury was being asked to determine whether the memories that had "come flooding back in 2005" where sufficient to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, she said.
The older complainant, now 35, broke down in the witness box as he described what the accused had done to him.
The softly spoken man said he had not told anyone at the time because he was in shock and did not know what to do.
"I just held it in. I was ashamed. I thought it was my fault."
The trial is expected to last three to four days.
- NZPA
