The trial of a couple accused of wilfully ill-treating three children, assault on a child and injuring with intent has ended with a hung jury.
David Frederick Mead, aged 32, unemployed, and his de facto partner, Irene Patricia Molloy, 34, housewife, both of Waitoa, had pleaded not guilty in the Hamilton District Court to four counts each of wilfully ill-treating a child.
Mead also faced two charges of injuring with intent and two of assault. Molloy faced one charge of injuring with intent and one of assault.
The jury retired about 1 pm on Monday but returned about 10 pm to tell Judge Robert Wolff that members could not agree on the charges of wilful ill-treatment.
Mead was found guilty of one charge of assault, but both he and Molloy were found not guilty on the remaining charges. They were remanded on bail until next month.
The charges relate to a period from January to June last year, when the three children - two girls now aged 8 and 11, and a boy aged 16 - were under the pair's care in Te Aroha, in the Waikato.
The children claimed in testimony given by closed-circuit television during the five-day trial that Mead and Molloy forced the youngest girl to eat a packet of cloves, an ordeal which left her vomiting, threw them into cold baths, sometimes fully clothed, and fed them rotten food. They said they were sometimes forced to clean the bathroom and toilet with a toothbrush.
Crown prosecutor Louella Dunn said a retrial on the outstanding charges had been ordered.
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