Court told: Boys groomed for sex

A man befriended several families in a small Northland community so he could groom young boys to sexually abuse them, the High Court at Whangarei has heard.
The man is standing trial in the High Court at Whangarei before Justice Peters and a seven-woman, five-man jury on three counts of doing an indecent act with boys aged under 11 and three counts of sexually grooming boys under the age of 11.
He has suppression of his name and any details that might identify him or the victims until at least the verdicts are delivered in the trial, which could be early next week.
The offences are alleged to have occurred at the man's home in a small Northland community in the months leading up to November 2008 and involved five boys aged under 11.
Crown prosecutor Mike Smith said in his opening address that the man befriended several families in the small Northland community so that he could get the opportunity to sexually abuse the young boys in the families.
Mr Smith said the man had done indecent acts with two of the boys - hence the first three charges - and was in the process of sexually grooming the other three boys.
He said the indecent acts on the two boys included the man touching their genital areas while they stayed at his home.
Mr Smith said there was no issue of consent in this case as the boys were too young to give knowledgeable consent.
In his interview with police, after being arrested, the man maintained that nothing improper had occurred between he and the boys.
Mr Smith said the man's relationship with the boys' families developed to the stage where they let the boys stay at his home overnight, which they enjoyed because the man let them fire an air rifle, play computer games and gave them lollies.
"Whether the acts occurred will be the single issue [for the jury to decide in the indecent act charges]," Mr Smith said.
He said the sexual grooming charges, two of which were representative - meaning it might have occurred several times over a period of time - were arranging to meet young people with the intention of committing sexual misconduct if the opportunity arose.
"When these meetings and stay-overs were arranged [by the man], did he intend or consider that he could take that opportunity to sexually abuse these boys?" Mr Smith said.