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A High Court judge has "dropped the curtain" on disciplinary charges against a dentist who had sex with his 15-year-old cousin 45 years ago.
The North Island provincial dentist, who has permanent name suppression, faced charges from the Dentists Disciplinary Tribunal alleging he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a complainant who was a current or former patient.
The charges were brought against the dentist in 2004 by his cousin, who said between the years 1957 and 1962, when she was aged between 12 and 16, she was sexually abused by her cousin.
The sexual abuse which began with inappropriate touching, and escalated to sexual intercourse when she was 15, and working as a receptionist at her cousin's practice.
Her cousin was 15 years older than her, and she was also his patient.
The dentist admitted having a brief sexual affair with the complainant, but said it was consensual and he believed she was 16 at the time.
The Dentists Disciplinary Tribunal turned down an application by the dentist to have the proceedings stopped.
That decision was appealed to the High Court at Wellington.
Justice Graham Lang overturned the tribunal's decision, putting an end to the proceedings.
He said the delay, of about 44 years between the alleged offending and the proceedings, was too great.
"There comes a time in any proceeding when the delay becomes too great, and the interests of the accused person take precedence over the public interest in having offending investigated and prosecuted," he said.
"The time has come to lower the curtain on this matter once and for all."
Moreover, Justice Lang said the sexual relationship arose from a family connection, and the patient-dentist relationship was incidental to that.
The alleged offending had "nothing at all to do with his status as a dentist".
The dentist had practised without any other incident for more than 50 years.
- NZPA
