Bus driver found guilty on indecency counts

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A Northland bus driver has been found guilty of groping a teenage student who hugged him to say goodbye.

A jury in the Whangarei District Court took less than four hours to return guilty verdicts on two counts of indecent assault. The Crown had added another charge of indecent assault before closing addresses yesterday.

Crown prosecutor Moana Jarman-Taylor had told the jury the complainant was "spot on" when she had said it wasn't right for a bus driver to kiss and touch her inappropriately.

Just because there were no witnesses did not mean the offences had not happened, she said, or that the complainant made the allegations up. The complainant had felt disgusted - a feeling any ordinary, right-minded member of the community would share, she said.

Defence lawyer Richard Parangi had said his client was certain he did not do anything illegal. The driver freely disclosed he hugged and gave the student a peck on her cheek to express his condolences during an earlier occasion.

He was "frank" in saying his hand may have come into contact with her breast when he pushed her away in the bus, Mr Parangi said. As well, the student couldn't remember which of the bus driver's hands had touched her or who hugged who but remembered him kissing her.

Mr Parangi said there had never been any complaint or a suggestion of a complaint from either the accused's employer or others who knew him in the community.

The bus driver will be sentenced on October 22.