'Naive' teacher denies pupil's sex charges

An Auckland teacher accused of indecently assaulting a teenage girl in one of his classes said he may have said things in his police interview that weren't correct.

The 42-year-old former teacher, who has name suppression, pleaded not guilty in Auckland District Court yesterday to three charges of indecently assaulting the girl around eight years ago.

The names of the school and the now adult complainant are also suppressed.

The girl was 14 and 15 and the teacher 34 and 35 when the alleged offending took place between February 2001 and September 2002.

The teacher told the court none of the alleged incidents happened.

Cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Lana Hamilton yesterday, he said his police interview was confrontational, to the point that he may have said things that were incorrect.

"She [the police officer] wasn't accepting any of my answers. My mind was going at a million miles an hour. I don't think I could remember everything," he said.

He added that was trying to be personable to the students and was a bit naive at the time.

He said email conversations with the complainant involved social chit-chat about music, movies and travel, and were not about emotions.

"I never really thought about the consequences," he said.

Ms Hamilton asked the accused if he liked the attention.

"I responded to the emails that were sent to me and I didn't really think about that," he said.

He denied that he gave gifts to flatter the complainant and that he had tried to develop a relationship with the complainant which was kept a secret from her parents and other teachers.

Ms Hamilton said before this alleged offending, the accused had been warned in 1999 and November 2000 about keeping a professional distance between himself and his students.

He told the jury he did modify his behaviour after November 2000.

During questioning from defence counsel Belinda Sellars last week, the accused admitted sending personal emails to the girl but denied there was any physical contact between the pair.

The Crown has alleged the offences happened outside the normal student-teacher relationship.

It started with non-school related emails, then gifts, including flowers and underwear, then the teacher and the complainant started spending time alone on school premises outside school hours.

On several occasions, there was kissing and touching involved.

Giving evidence last week, the complainant, now 23, denied that she had made up a story about being showered with gifts by the teacher.

Under cross-examination, the woman said she had a crush on the teacher and liked the attention.

The teacher started at the school in 1997 and was suspended in May last year.

The trial continues.

- NZPA