Court reserves ruling in indecent assault appeal

The victim had not gone to police with the complaint until three months after the incident allegedly happened. Photo / Thinkstock

Napier businessman Rodney Green has appealed two convictions relating to indecently assaulting an employee more than three years ago, with lawyer Russell Fairbrother raising the issue of bruises the woman was said to have received as a result.

Mr Green had been ordered to pay the woman $3000 reparation for emotional harm and was also sentenced at his trial last year to 175 hours' community work. Four other charges against him were not upheld.

The convictions came in the wake of Mr Green being found guilty of grabbing the complainant's breast and trying to kiss her after leaving a sports event, in his Hummer limousine, in January 2012.

Mr Fairbrother, QC, told the Court of Appeal that it needed to look into new medical evidence about the processes of bruising after the prosecution said the bruises the woman had were a key factor in the case.

Mr Fairbrother said the two charges Mr Green was found guilty of involved the issue of the bruising which he said indicated the jury believed they corroborated her story.

While he had no issue with the woman saying she had bruising, Mr Fairbrother said there was nothing to say they were as a result of the alleged incident.

He said proposed new medical evidence would indicate it was wrong to intuitively link the bruising to the complainant's allegations.

Mr Fairbrother asked the Court of Appeal to look at the new evidence from a doctor about how bruises develop and age.

The doctor was not in the position to comment on the woman's case as there had been no pictures of the bruises.

She had not gone to police with the complaint until three months after it allegedly happened.

Mr Green was not charged until 15 months later.

The doctor's only comment was that there needed to be an element of caution before any assumptions were made about how bruises were caused.

The Court of Appeal reserved its decision.