Teacher guilty of hitting pupils

After deliberating for almost six hours a jury has found Trevor Apihai guilty of two counts of assault on a child and two counts of assault with a weapon.
Apihai, 45, had been a teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ngati Kahungunu ki Heretaunga school on Stock Rd between July 20 and November 12 last year.
 It was alleged he pinched children in his class, pulled on clothing, grabbed wrists, swore at them and would often become abusive.
Originally he faced 15 charges, but five were dropped on day three of the trial due to contradictory and insufficient evidence from students.
On the fourth day a jury of eight women and four men found Apihai not guilty on six counts of assault and guilty on four.
During closing arguments the Crown and defence said the children in the class had been disrespectful, abusive and would often make a game of enraging their teacher.
Crown prosecutor Jo Reilly said despite often insufficient and contradictory evidence, the jury had to appreciate the entire account of evidence.
"We heard about a teacher who uses force to get children to listen to him and move them around the classroom. We didn't hear once the behaviour of the accused was justifiable."
Defence counsel Eric Forster argued the trial would be based on two aspects: if the evidence the children had given was accurate and if the jury would deem Apihai's behaviour appropriate under the term of parental control.
Parental control includes the prevention of harm to a child, stopping a criminal offence, stopping offensive behaviour and performing daily parenting tasks.
Mr Forster said Apihai had tried to control children who would often swear at him, call him a "faggot" and become violent with him.
He claimed any cases of Apihai touching children were on the elbow and wrist and were in a guiding fashion.
 "They would say 'f*** you', call you a 'fag' to your face, throw things at you, punch you, kick you - what can you do? Only your best," Mr Forster said.
"You have to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt about the evidence. In my submission it doesn't have a quality about it."
Evidence from the children would often be contradictory, Mr Forster said. Children had claimed to have seen abuse but had merely heard about it.
The jury began deliberation after 11am and returned just before 5pm with a unanimous verdict of not guilty for six of the 10 charges.
Apihai was found guilty on four charges which included hitting a child in the head with a pencil case, pulling a child off a chair and grabbing children by the wrist.
He was supported in court by his co-accused Wi Derek Huata, who faces 15 charges of assault on students.
Huata said Apihai was a gentle man who had struggled to cope with the children, and the cost had been his career.
 Apihai has been remanded on bail to reappear before the court for sentencing on July 5.