A former Northland church leader accused of using his trusted position to prey on vulnerable young girls is expected to learn his fate today.
Brian Sanders, 68, is defending 38 charges, including counts of rape and indecent assault, allegedly committed against 13 complainants at Doubtless Bay and Bream Bay between 1998 and 2013. He faces 15 charges of indecent assault on a child aged between 12 and 16, one of indecent assault, three of rape, 15 of sexual conduct with a child under 12, two of sexual conduct with a young person under 16 and two of unlawful sexual connection.
The alleged offending happened when Sanders was president of the Bream Bay branch of the Latter Day Saints Church and when he helped his wife run an after-school programme in the Far North. The jury retired to consider their verdicts at 3.30pm yesterday after Judge Duncan Harvey summed up the case in the Whangarei District Court.
In her closing address to the jury on Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Bernadette O'Connor said Sanders lived a double life.
"The respected life of a church leader and president of a youth group but underneath that respectful veneer he preyed upon, groomed, and exploited disadvantaged and innocent girls for his sexual gratification.