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The Supreme Court has dismissed a former Auckland restaurateur's application for leave to appeal a conviction for drugging and raping a younger man.
Philip David Sturm was jailed for nine years after being convicted of six charges of sexual violation and stupefaction against four men, all aged in their 20s.
It was the second time Sturm had been on trial on the charges after the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial when both Sturm's lawyer and the Crown appealed after his first trial.
After his second trial Sturm again went to the Court of Appeal to appeal convictions on two charges of sexual violation and one of stupefaction against one of the complainants.
In the Court of Appeal Sturm had argued that the trial judge had failed to direct the jury properly on the stupefying count. He said the charge involved a dual intent and the judge had not made that clear.
The Court of Appeal held that the judge should have done so, but that no miscarriage of justice arose because the judge's directions conveyed the substance of what the Crown had to prove.
The Supreme Court dismissed Sturm's application to appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision.
"We consider the Court of Appeal was correct in this case to decide that, even if analytically two discrete intents must be proved, the judge's directions and the practical realities of the case meant that no miscarriage arose from the failure of the judge to direct in precisely those terms," it said in its judgment.
- NZPA
