Faith healer Nga Teiri’s indecent assault trial abandoned after psychiatrist’s visit

Nga Teiri, also known as Nga Teina, had pleaded not guilty to 16 charges. Photo / NZME

The trial of a faith healer facing 16 charges of indecent assault has been abandoned after the defendant was seen by a psychiatrist.

The jury hearing the trial of Nga Teiri, also known as Nga Teina, 67, was discharged by Judge Gordon Matenga in the Napier District Court today.

It was the third day of Teiri’s trial relating to alleged assaults in 2019 and involving several women in the Pasifika community in Hawke’s Bay and Waikato.

Teiri had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The court was told previously that Teiri gave massages to people, saying he could cure sickness and that he was acting on God’s instructions.

However, the Crown alleged that, when he massaged some of the women, he was sexually motivated, touching them on their breasts or inner thighs.

Counsel assisting with Teiri’s defence said he “honestly believed” the patients had consented to be touched.

Judge Matenga yesterday told the jury of eight women and four men that Teiri had been previously assessed as being mentally fit to stand trial.

However, he said that over the course of the trial there had been some “decompensation” in the defendant’s state of mind involved his religious beliefs, and a psychiatrist had been called in to assess him.

The judge said there was a legal process to deal with such a situation in the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003.

“If I trigger that process, what it means is that further reports are required, and further interviews need to be undertaken, which would mean that the trial cannot proceed.”

Judge Matenga thanked the jury and told them: “You may now take your leave.”

Teiri was remanded in custody to reappear in court in October.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.