A two-day adjournment has been called in the trial of a man on trial for the sexual violation of a 5-year-old girl before she died in Napier five days before last Christmas.
The jury in the trial of 25-year-old Kerry Charles Ratana was told of the delay this afternoon as Justice Simon France was about to resume the second day of the trial with the last of nine crown witnesses.
The judge explained only that the adjournment related to scientific evidence and a need for more testing.
Ratana has pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexually violating Sahara Jayde Baker-Koro on or about December 20 last year.
In July he pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter having admitted forcefully pushing the child in the chest and causing her death on that date, as he was babysiting his girlfriend's two daughters and the couple's son while the mother was at work.
