20 Oct 2015

Boy denies making up teacher abuse accusations

4:50 pm on 20 October 2015

A boy has denied making up accusations of sexual abuse against one of his teachers.

The woman, whose name is suppressed, is before the High Court in Wellington on a range of charges including indecent assault, sexual violation and unlawful sexual connection.

The Crown yesterday told the court the woman began an intimate relationship with the complainant, which progressed from kissing to sexual intercourse when he was aged between 10 and 13.

It also said frequent text messages and explicit photographs were exchanged between the woman and the boy.

Today during cross-examination from the woman's lawyer, Stephen Iorns, the boy admitted lying to people about the relationship between himself and the accused.

In reply to a question from Justice Woolford, he said he had mixed feelings about the relationship and sometimes he wanted things and sometimes he didn't.

The court had earlier been told the woman took the boy to a motel, where he lost his virginity, and he told the Judge he wanted to go with her and wanted to do the things that occurred.

However, he also said there were times when he did not want the "physical acts" to occur.

The boy told Mr Iorns he loved the teacher and she loved him back.

Earlier today, the jury was shown a DVD interview of the boy talking about text messages the pair exchanged.

He said they began texting each other after he slept over at the teacher's house and their messages were things normal couples would send, such as texting "I love you" in the morning.

Sometimes the woman would text him if he had done something wrong, he said. If she had done something wrong he would tell her he was going to tell the police what was happening, and she would ask him not to.

Another teacher found the messages on his phone and the accused told him not to tell the police the truth, the boy said.

He told her he wouldn't but said inside he knew he was going to.