Primary school teacher accused of rape wins $30,000

Police investigating a rape claim against a primary school teacher were "haphazard", failed to take obvious lines of inquiry, made a premature arrest and were negligent, a judge has ruled.

The teacher, who has permanent name suppression, was charged with raping a 7-year-old when she was in his class in 1996. The name of the school is also suppressed.

He faced two charges of sexual violation by rape, one of indecent assault and two of assault when he appeared in Wellington District Court in June.

But in a rare move, Judge Bruce Davidson told the jury he was withdrawing the case because of the implausibility of the complaint.

And yesterday he awarded the teacher $30,000 costs.

The police did not gather all the relevant material, he said, and what they did have should have caused "significant alarm".

"Put bluntly, the police may well have thought twice about continuing with the prosecution," Judge Davidson said.

Police began investigating after the girl saw the teacher in 2003 and said it "rekindled" the memories and events of 1996. It took 14 months of investigation, while the man continued working as a teacher, before he was arrested and charged.

But the judge said that during that time there were "several shortcomings", including a failure to get plans of the school layout, which would have thrown into doubt the girl's account of events.

Police also failed to interview the teacher's wife and daughter, did not get public records from the school and neglected to properly brief a doctor who examined the alleged victim.

"I am left with a strong sense that the police did not have any overall investigation plan," Judge Davidson said.

"The investigation to my mind seemed haphazard."

It was undoubtedly a reflection of the significant resourcing problems police investigating sexual abuse claims faced, he said.

While the judge agreed that there was enough evidence to arrest the man, "there must have been strong signals that any responsible police officer should proceed with considerable caution and prudence".

The judge ordered the police and the Ministry of Justice each to pay $15,000 to the man.

At the end of the trial police stood by their decision to prosecute, saying they had carefully and thoroughly investigated the case.

Detective Inspector Mike Arnerich, of the Wellington CIB, said the investigation was carried out by a competent and capable child-abuse detective and supervised by an experienced detective sergeant in charge of the child abuse team. The case was prosecuted by independent Crown counsel.

"We will consider the judge's comments to see if there are processes that could be improved," he said.

Pat Newman, president of the Principals' Federation, said he was pleased the judgment was so strong because it further vindicated the accused teacher.