Social worker acquitted of having sex with teen faked qualifications to get job

The jury was not told that Joseph had lied on her CV and forged an academic transcript to get the job. File photo

A social worker acquitted of having sex with a teenager she was mentoring faked her qualifications to get the job.

Alexia Joseph, 30, spent the last week and a half on trial at Manukau District Court, before a jury this morning unanimously found her not guilty of having unlawful sexual connection with the then 15-year-old.

The defendant had been working for the Waipareira Trust and mentoring the complainant and other at-risk boys for less than two months when the allegation arose in September 2013.

But the jury was not told that Joseph had lied on her CV and forged an academic transcript to get that job.

She pleaded guilty to charges of obtaining by deception and making a false document earlier this year and in June was sentenced to a year on supervision and four months community detention.

Unknown to the jury, Joseph was serving that sentence while her trial took place over the last fortnight.

Outside court, Joseph put the fraud down to "hard times" with her family.

"My dad has seasonal work and they had nowhere to live, so it was put back on to me to have to provide," she said. "I felt there was no other way to help them than to do that."

Chief executive of Waipareira Trust John Tamihere refused to comment on how the defendant had managed to dodge screening processes when she applied for the job.

He would not say whether any of the trust's protocols had changed as a result of the offending.

Joseph would likely have been looking at a jail term had she been found guilty of having sex with a teenager and her relief outside court was palpable.

"My children, my family and my husband were directly involved in this and have been affected by this," she said.

Joseph said it was "excruciating" to hear lies being told about her in court.

The boy - who cannot be named because of his age - came forward with the allegations after speaking with another of his mentors, comedian Mike King.

He told Mr King he was falling in love with Joseph, which sparked an immediate confrontation.

"How many times have you f***ed her?" Mr King asked.

In an interview with police, the teenager said his mentor became enraged when he told him he had sex with Joseph and Mr King prompted him to inform senior staff at Waipareira Trust.

On the day of the alleged incident, Joseph took the boy to the cinema before meeting up with the complainant's mother for a boozy lunch which stretched into the evening.

The court heard Joseph dropped the other woman at home and continued with the teen to Oakwood Manner motor lodge in Mangere where she booked a large studio room.

The boy told the court she persuaded him to join her in bed and the pair had sex, but the jury rejected his version of events.

Joseph's lawyer Paul Pati accepted his client had spent the night with the complainant at the motel, but said there was nothing more to it.

"It was an extremely poor series of decisions but it doesn't mean she had sex with [him] on that night," Mr Pati said.

He told the jury the teenager had simply told a lie and been forced to follow through with it once the police became involved.

Joseph said she was now looking forward to a family trip to Rarotonga.