Jury still considering historic sex case

File photo / Greg Bowker

A jury in the High Court at Wellington will go into a third day of deliberation tomorrow on a raft of indecency charges laid against a former Marist teaching brother.

Bede Hampton, 62, was on trial for a week on alleged sex offences against two teenage students at a Masterton Catholic boarding school in the early 1970s.

A predominantly young jury of eight women and four men retired yesterday afternoon to consider their verdicts. They were then sent home for the night.

After eight hours today with still no outcome, Justice Forrest Miller allowed them to break and resume at 9am.

Hampton returned to New Zealand from his home in Australia voluntarily to face 26 counts. He pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent assault on one of the boys and a third was dismissed.

The remaining counts are denied.

The alleged offending happened while he was teaching at St Joseph's College in Masterton. The school has since closed.

Hampton was then in his mid-20s and the complainants in their early teens.

Within a few years Hampton had left the Marist order and his teaching career.

Now an interior decorator based in Queensland, he is married with two adult children.

The two former pupils made their separate official complaints to the Catholic Church and the police less than 10 years ago.

One of them -- who left the college at the end of fourth form -- now also lives in Australia.

- NZPA